Fingers pointed at Russia after Spanish minister's plane hit by GPS attack

Plane carrying Spain's defence minister suffers an attack while flying to Lithuania

Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles and Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene at Siauliai airbase on Wednesday. Reuters

A Spanish military jet carrying Defence Minister Margarita Robles experienced a GPS disturbance early on Wednesday as it was flying to Lithuania, the ministry said, with the blame laid at Russia's door.

As well as Ms Robles, the plane was carrying relatives of Spanish pilots who form part of the Nato air policing mission in the Baltic region, on the border with Russia and its ally Belarus.

Ms Robles appeared to blame Russia during a news conference with Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene at Siauliai airbase.

“We all have the right to fly and travel across all European territory without, as we experienced this morning, interference by everyone knows who,” Ms Robles said.

Ms Sakaliene called the incident “another illustration that Russia is a neighbour that does not follow any rules and does not care about the damage it may cause”.

Earlier this month, the European Commission accused Russia of jamming the GPS of a plane carrying the commission's President Ursula von der Leyen as it prepared to land in Bulgaria.

Sweden's Transport Agency has reported that interference incidents with global navigation satellite systems in the country's airspace soared from 55 to 733 between 2023 and August this year, and blamed Russia.

In early June, Sweden and five other countries on the Baltic Sea – Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland – raised the issue with the International Civil Aviation Organisation, of which Russia is a member.

The ICAO council “expressed grave concern over the situation” and demanded that Russia end the interference, but incidents in the region have increased, the Swedish agency said.

Spain said this month that it would reinforce its presence near Russia's borders with the EU after Poland shot down drones that breached its airspace.

The incident comes amid a change in tone towards Russia from US President Donald Trump, who appeared on Tuesday to have lost patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump suggested that Ukraine could “take back all of its territory from Russia”. It marked an abrupt shift by the US leader, who had previously pressured Kyiv to give up land to end the war. However, it remains unclear whether his words will translate into action.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Wednesday suggested that Europe must “grow up” and increase its support for Ukraine.

Mr Trump's comments were good for Ukraine and good for Europe, Mr Wadephul added, as they demonstrated that the US President “must indeed acknowledge that his considerable efforts with Putin have so far been unsuccessful”.

Europeans have repeatedly said “that we really have to grow up … we have to become more sovereign”, Mr Wadephul said.

“That's why we have to look at what we ourselves can achieve. We can achieve much more. Not all European states have delivered what they promised Ukraine. We have to look at what other financial and military options we have.”

President Donald Trump called Russia a 'paper tiger'. Reuters

During talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Trump said Nato nations should shoot down Russian planes breaching their territory.

However, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius highlighted the need to avoid an “escalation trap”. He said Nato members should remain calm amid alleged airspace breaches by Russian aircraft.

Speaking at a media conference in Berlin alongside Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson, Mr Pistorius warned that overreacting to Russian incursions would threaten European peace and security.

“Level-headedness is not cowardice and not fear, but a responsibility towards your own country and towards peace in Europe,” he said.

“Slapdash demands to shoot something out of the sky or do some great show of strength help less than anything else right now.”

Mr Pistorius suggested that Mr Putin aimed to goad Nato members into a heavy-handed response.

“We won't do Vladimir Putin the pleasure,” the German minister said. “We need to protect ourselves from a situation in which things get worse.”

Armed Russian fighter jets entered Estonian airspace for 12 minutes on Friday last week, causing Nato countries to scramble their jets and Tallinn to call allies for urgent talks.

That incident came just a week after Warsaw launched Nato consultations after Russian drones were shot down over eastern Poland.

Mr Trump's remarks at the UN, in which he also described Russia as a “paper tiger”, come a month after he rolled out the red carpet for Mr Putin in Alaska.

The Kremlin on Wednesday brushed off the US leader's comments, and said Mr Putin valued Mr Trump's efforts to resolve the war in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was a bear, not a tiger, and “there is no such thing as a paper bear”.

Russia has “no choice” but to continue its military offensive against Ukraine, Mr Peskov added.

“We are continuing our special military operation to ensure our interests and achieve the goals.

“We are doing this for both the present and the future of our country. For many generations to come. Therefore, we have no alternative.”

European Nato members have increased their defence spending in the past nine months, and have supplied Ukraine with US air defence weapons funded by Nato.

The EU is also discussing a plan to use frozen Russian assets to boost financial aid to Ukraine, despite some claiming that such a move might damage foreign confidence in western bonds.

Ms von der Leyen said Europe would impose more sanctions and tariffs on Moscow and that the bloc would be further reducing imports of Russian energy.