THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Polish researchers have collected detailed information on Russia’s Baltic Sea GPS jamming operations, a mysterious nuisance for aviators and mariners in the region that began when Russia attacked Ukraine.
The airwaves over the Baltic Sea have been compromised ever since the war began. In the past years, thousands of planes and ships have had their navigation systems bamboozled, with some ending up veering off course or even needing to cancel their trips altogether. The culprit behind these mysterious aberrations: radio waves emanating from secretive facilities run by Russia’s military.
Global Navigation Satellite System interference, which comes in the forms of jamming, which means blocking the signal, and spoofing, which entails gaming location readouts, has become a daily occurrence in northeastern Europe. From the airport of Gdansk through the busy shipping lanes of the Baltic Sea and all the way to the airspace of Estonia and Finland, these interferences have been recorded almost daily since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. They have even resulted in flight cancellations, airport closures and commercial ships steering off track.
Authorities in the Baltic states have laid the blame squarely on Russia. In March, eight European countries, including the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, France, the Netherlands and Ukraine, lodged a complaint with the UN about the practice. Several UN agencies have also taken up the issue, including the International Maritime Organization, the civil aviation authority ICAO and the International Telecommunications Union.
For its part, Russia – itself a Baltic Sea country and with part of its territory heavily affected by the jamming – has maintained official radio silence on the topic.
Open-source data and information released by governments in the Baltic states give some clues as to where these malicious signals might originate from. Two hotspots continuously pop up: Kaliningrad, Russia’s exclave wedged between Poland and Lithuania, and the St. Petersburg area. Both regions known to have a heavy Russian military presence, including divisions specialized in electronic warfare and radio.
“People have gotten so used to having satellite navigation,” said Jaroslaw Cydejko, adjunct assistant professor at Gdynia Maritime University. “Mariners should be able to navigate without it, but it has become a fact of life.”
Cydejko’s work focuses on GNSS use in the maritime domain. Traditionally working “on the brighter side of GNSS,” in the past few years, much of his research has pivoted to examining the mysterious emissions interfering with the satellites’ signals in the Baltic.
Russia is employing both jamming and spoofing, although in 2025, the interference has shifted from blocking the signals primarily to falsifying them, Cydejko says, citing his research group’s observations. Spoofing is the more advanced technique, and is generally tougher to detect and defend against.
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