Russia’s GPS Jamming Won’t End with Russian-Ukrainian War, Lithuanian Minister Warns
Russia’s growing use of electronic warfare to disrupt satellite navigation systems in the Baltic region is not a temporary wartime tactic, and will likely continue long after the war in Ukraine ends, Lithuania’s Minister of Transport Eugenijus Sabutis has warned.
The Gaze reports on this with reference to LRT.
Speaking to national media this week, Sabutis called for a long-term strategic response from the EU and NATO, arguing that Moscow’s interference with GPS and GNSS signals poses a structural threat to European infrastructure, security, and sovereignty.
“Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking these disruptions will stop when the war ends. They won’t. This is not a passing anomaly but a new reality we must face,” Sabutis said.
He added that the geopolitical environment in Europe has undergone irreversible changes, and regional governments must accept that peace-time assumptions about signal safety are now outdated.
Sabutis’s remarks follow a joint appeal by Lithuania and 12 other EU countries, including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Finland, urging the European Commission to treat GNSS signal interference as a coordinated and hostile act by Russia and Belarus.
Lithuanian authorities have reported severe disruptions in recent months, particularly affecting civilian aviation and maritime operations around Klaipėda port.
According to Lithuania’s air traffic agency Oro Navigacija, over 400 interference reports were logged in January alone – ten times more than in the same month the previous year.
While some officials in Vilnius, including parliamentary speaker Saulius Skvernelis, have suggested the interference is a defensive measure to protect the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Sabutis rejected that explanation as dangerously short-sighted.
“Russia has a long legacy of signal suppression, dating back to Soviet-era efforts to block foreign broadcasts. The methods may have evolved, but the intent remains the same: control, disruption, and projection of power,” he said.
Sabutis acknowledged that delay of response cannot become inaction. “Today, a joint appeal by 13 EU countries is a political message. But if we want results, it must become a policy. Doing nothing only emboldens the aggressor,” he noted.
Read more on The Gaze: 13 Countries Urge EU Commission to Act on Russian and Belarusian Satellite Navigation Interference