Ukraine apologised to Lithuania on Sunday after its drones may have strayed into Lithuanian airspace during an operation against Russian military targets. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the incident may have resulted from Russian electronic warfare. The apology comes amid repeated drone incursions into Baltic airspace and Lithuania’s warning that Russia can falsify GPS signals across a radius of up to 450 km from its Kaliningrad exclave.“We regret the incident that occurred this morning in Lithuanian airspace, which may have resulted from Russian electronic warfare diverting drones during an operation against legitimate military targets in Russia,” spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi wrote on X.“We apologise for any disruption, risks, and concern this may have caused. We are committed to sharing all relevant information with our Lithuanian partners to establish the full circumstances of the incident.”An earlier version of Tykhyi’s post also mentioned Latvia.
Russia expands GPS spoofing network near Baltic states
Russia has increased the number of GPS spoofing antennae in its Kaliningrad exclave from three in early 2025 to 36 now, Darius Kuliesius, deputy head of Lithuania’s communications regulator, told Reuters on Tuesday.Kaliningrad is a heavily militarised Russian territory between NATO members Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic coast. Kuliesius said Russia’s GPS spoofing capability could reach up to 450 km from the exclave.“The occasional interference began with the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius. Now they have built up the infrastructure and the interference has become systemic, permanent, unending Russian provocation against European security,” Kuliesius said.A map from Lithuania’s regulator indicated that the interference could reach across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, most of Poland, and parts of Finland, Sweden and Belarus, as well as the Baltic Sea.The regulator estimated the range by analysing disturbances in aviation surveillance ADS-B transmissions, Kuliesius said.Russia has frequently denied accusations of electronic interference. The Russian embassy in Vilnius did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What is GPS spoofing?
GPS spoofing involves broadcasting false GPS signals to confuse navigation systems. Kuliesius said Russia’s expanded antenna network could falsify signals across a radius of up to 450 km from Kaliningrad.The interference has also affected mobile phone networks near Kaliningrad, degrading their quality on some frequencies, Kuliesius said. He added that spoofing and jamming intensify during Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia.“Online bus schedules in Klaipeda stop working during the spikes, because they rely on tracking buses by GPS”, he said, referring to a town 50 km from the Kaliningrad border.Most modern passenger aircraft and major airports have a variety of navigation tools available if GPS encounters problems.
NATO jet shoots down suspected Ukrainian drone over Estonia
On May 19, a Romanian NATO fighter jet shot down a suspected Ukrainian drone over Estonia after it entered the country’s airspace from Russia, the Estonian military said.The drone entered southeastern Estonia around noon local time and was shot down at 12.14 pm with a single missile.“The incident occurred under the conditions of heavy electronic warfare, including GPS spoofing and jamming, by Russia,” the Estonian military said.NATO confirmed that a Romanian jet had shot down a drone over Estonian airspace and said an investigation was under way. It also said the alliance was ready and able to respond to potential air threats.Latvia issued an air threat alert on the same day after a drone entered its airspace. Residents near the Russian border were told to stay indoors, while NATO Baltic Air Policing jets were summoned to the area.The alert led to train suspensions, the stoppage of national examinations for ninth-grade students and the closure of grocery shops, according to local media reports. It was not immediately clear whether the drone that entered Latvia was the same one reported in Estonia or a separate aircraft.Both Baltic countries blamed the incursions on Moscow and said Ukraine had the right to strike Russian military targets to weaken Russia’s ability to wage war. They stressed that they had not allowed Ukraine to launch attacks on Russia from their territories.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the previous week that Ukraine would send experts to Latvia to help protect its skies.
Previous GPS interference affected European leaders’ flights
Last year, a Spanish military jet carrying Defence Minister Margarita Robles experienced GPS disruption near Kaliningrad. A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was also jammed while travelling to Bulgaria.Estonia and Finland have also blamed Russia for jamming GPS navigation devices in the region’s airspace.On May 15, Finnish authorities warned of suspected drone activity in the country’s capital region. Helsinki airport suspended traffic for three hours, while the Finnish defence forces scrambled fighter jets and other emergency services. No drones were eventually found.Since March, several Ukrainian military drones have strayed into the airspace of NATO members Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, all of which border Russia. Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone attacks on Russia, including around the Baltic region.The Latvian government resigned the week before the May 19 incidents over its handling of the drone incursions.