Financial Times

Hackers tamper with the gps of von der Leyen's plane. The shadow of Russia

The Bulgarian interior minister, Daniel Mitov, dismissed the hypothesis of a cyber attack during the landing of the EU president's plane. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet European leaders on Thursday in Paris for what the Elysée Palace calls a summit of the willing in hybrid form

1 September 2025

Nella foto Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), nel 2019 Ministro della Difesa della Germania, mentre sale a bordo di un aereo dell'Aeronautica Militare belga presso la sezione militare dell'aeroporto di Tegel per volare a Parigi.

5' min read

On Sunday afternoon an alleged Russian interference attack against EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen disabled Gps navigation services at the airport in Plovdiv, southern Bulgaria, and forced the plane of the European Commission President to land using paper maps. This was reported by the Financial Times. von der Leyen is on a tour of Eastern Europe: the priority of course is anti-Russian defence, as the whole region is affected by the looming threat of Moscow's expansionist aims.

Hybrid Warfare - The Ghosts of the Baltic

"Interference incident"

The plane von der Leyen was travelling on was 'a charter flight'. Whether or not the aim was to hit the plane on which the president was travelling? "This question must be put to the Russians, if indeed it was they who carried out the action, as the Bulgarian authorities suspect, and to the Bulgarian authorities who are investigating the matter. What we can say is that the Bulgarian authorities suspect that this blatant interference was perpetrated by Russia, and this is the information we have received from them." This was stated by European Commission spokeswoman Arianna Podestà in the daily press briefing.

Ue: "Interferenze russe sul Gps dell'aereo di von der Leyen. Siamo abituati alle minacce"

"The President is currently visiting seven frontline member states. She started her visits on Friday and is concluding them today. One of the stops was Bulgaria, where she was supposed to visit the frontline, and there this incident of interference occurred. The plane, in any case, landed safely at the place originally planned. So there was no change of course because of this,' the spokeswoman points out.

Bulgaria rejects cyber attack hypothesis

The Bulgarian Minister of the Interior, Daniel Mitov, rejected tonight in an interview with the public television channel Bnt the hypothesis of a cyber attack on the Gps system during the landing of President von der Leyen's plane. During the landing, a neutralisation of the satellite signal that provided Gps information to the aircraft's navigation system occurred and the pilot resorted to the alternative approach for landing using the Ils instrument system. "We were immediately informed of the problem. The cybercrime department of the Service for Combating Organised Crime (Gdbob) was instructed to check whether it was a cyber attack," said Daniel Mitov. "We can categorically state that this is not the case, this is not a cyber attack. From now on, we will cooperate with the other institutions tasked with carrying out operational actions to investigate the problem in question and get to the truth, he concluded.

German Defence Chief: Gps interference on my aircraft too

"At the moment we are dealing with acts of sabotage and espionage, we are also subject to hybrid actions that can be traced back to state actors and also to Russia," said Carsten Breuer, Inspector General of the Bundeswehr. At a press conference in Berlin today, he also revealed an incident in which he was a protagonist: in two cases, one while he was flying north of the Baltic Sea and one while he was on his way to a German troop visit in Lithuania, his plane allegedly had Gps problems, exactly as happened today to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Russian asset node

Von der Leyen spoke about the use of Russian assets. "We are reflecting on the next steps and the best use of these assets, because one thing is very clear: Russia, the predator, must be held accountable for what it has done and it must pay. It must pay for the damage and for the aggression. That must be the principle. And therefore, we are considering further utilisation of the windfall profits from immobilised Russian assets,' von der Leyen said. "As you know, what we are doing at the moment is taking the windfall profits from immobilised Russian assets and channelling them directly into Ukraine, for defence matters or reconstruction measures. So far, EUR 3.7 billion has been generated from extraordinary profits and more will follow on a regular basis, but we are also reflecting on the next steps and the best use of these resources." The use of the proceeds from Russian assets was decided by the EU from the 13th sanctions package against Russia. A 19th sanctions package on Moscow is currently under consideration and expected soon.

Berlin denies Von der Leyen, 'EU has no say on troop deployment'

Also today, Germany distanced itself from EU President von der Leyen's statements that Europe was drawing up 'rather precise plans' for a multinational deployment of troops in Ukraine as part of post-conflict security guarantees. German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters, "These are issues that are not discussed before sitting down at the negotiating table with the many parties who have a say." "I would be more cautious about commenting on or confirming in any way such considerations, apart from the fact that the EU has no mandate or competence with regard to the placement of troops," the minister added.

New mediation attempts with Moscow

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet European leaders on Thursday in Paris, a source told Afp, as part of international efforts to mediate an end to the three-and-a-half-year Russian invasion. It will be, the Elysée Palace announced in these hours, a 'hybrid' summit of the willing, with French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in attendance. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will also attend the meeting, by video link, as will other European leaders.

Vladimir Putin spoke about Ukraine at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit: the West's 'continuous' attempts to involve Kiev in NATO is one of the main causes behind the conflict in Ukraine'. Putin added: 'The crisis arose largely because of the coup in Kiev in 2014, provoked by the West'. The second cause, on the other hand, "are the West's continued attempts to involve Ukraine in NATO. As we have repeatedly stressed, this poses a direct threat to Russia's security," Putin noted.

Moscow: 'No meeting with Zelensky agreed yet'

Kremlin foreign policy adviser Iuri Ushakov said that the presidents of Russia and the US, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, have not yet reached an agreement for a trilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or for a bilateral between Putin and Zelensky. Tass reports this, citing an interview of Ushakov with Russian state TV. "So far, what is being reported in the press is not exactly what we agreed on. Now there is talk of a trilateral meeting, of a meeting between Putin and Zelensky. But specifically, as far as I know, there has been no agreement between Putin and Trump on this."

In the evening Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing. This was reported by Tass. The Kremlin chief, fresh from attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin, arrived at the state residence in Diaoyutai ahead of upcoming engagements. Tomorrow, 2 September, there will be Russian-Chinese negotiations, a Russia-China-Mongolia trilateral meeting and several bilateral meetings.