Bulgaria debunks von der Leyen jet claims

The EU Commission president claimed that Russia had interfered with her airplane’s navigation systems

There is no evidence of Russia interfering with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s airplane during her recent flight to Bulgaria, the country’s authorities have said.

On Sunday, upon landing in Plovdiv, von der Leyen’s pilots allegedly reported issues with their navigation systems. Brussels later told the Financial Times that her flight was “forced to circle for an hour” and claimed that Moscow had “blatantly interfered” with the aircraft, supposedly trying to jam its GPS signal.

However, Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov has outright contradicted Brussels’ claim, telling parliament on Thursday that no evidence of a Russian attack had been found and that von der Leyen’s plane did not suffer any serious issues, only short-term signal degradation which is common in densely populated areas.