By Andrius Sytas
RIGA, May 26 (Reuters) - Russia can falsify GPS signals deep into Europe at a radius of up to 450km (280 miles) from its Kaliningrad exclave due to hugely-expanded capacity, a Lithuanian official said on Tuesday.
Since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, European nations have often accused Russia of electronic interference but President Vladimir Putin's government denies that, blaming Western smear tactics.
Darius Kuliesius, deputy head of Lithuania's communications regulator, told Reuters that Russia increased its GPS "spoofing" antennae, broadcasting false signals to confuse other location systems, from three in early 2025 to 36 now.
The antennae are based, he said, in the heavily militarized territory of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between NATO alliance members Lithuania and Poland on the Baltic coast.
"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.
The Russian embassy in Lithuania's capital Vilnius did not immediately reply to a request for comment, but Moscow has frequently denied such accusations in the past.
A map from the Lithuanian regulator indicated Russia's Global Positioning System falsification could reach across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, most of Poland, and parts of Finland, Sweden and Belarus, as well as the Baltic Sea.
The range had reached 450km, Kuliesius said, which the Lithuanian regulator estimated by analysing disturbances in aviation surveillance ADS-B transmissions.
PAST INCIDENTS
Last year, a Spanish military jet with Defence Minister Margarita Robles onboard experienced a GPS disturbance near Kaliningrad while a plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was jammed en route to Bulgaria.
Estonia and neighbouring Finland have also blamed Russia for jamming GPS navigation devices in the region's airspace.
However, most modern airliners and major airports have a variety of navigation tools available if GPS encounters problems.
Kuliesius said Lithuania's mobile phone networks near Kaliningrad are degraded in quality due to interference affecting some frequencies. Spoofing and jamming spike 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 added, referring to a town 50km from the border with Kaliningrad.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Riga; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
