Russia’s alleged satellite signal jamming of a military aircraft carrying the British defense minister on Wednesday would—if confirmed—be Moscow’s latest flirtation with a hard NATO red line; the safety of allied leaders.
Grant Shapps was returning from a visit to observe NATO military drills in Poland, when interference occurred close to the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, a strategic and heavily militarized location known as an electronic warfare hub.
The interference lasted around 30 minutes, blocking cell and internet connection and forcing the aircraft to revert to alternative location technologies.
An unnamed British Defense Ministry source told The Times that the Royal Air Force is “well prepared to deal with this,” but suggested such measures put “an unnecessary risk on civilian aircraft and could potentially endanger people’s lives.” The incident, the source added, was “wildly irresponsible on Russia’s part.”
JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images
However, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson downplayed concerns.
“It didn’t threaten the safety of the aircraft and it is not unusual for aircraft to experience GPS jamming near Kaliningrad, which is of course Russian territory,” they said.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry and the British Defense Ministry by email to request comment.
The Shapps incident is not the first, nor even the most serious, occasion on which a NATO member minister has potentially been endangered by Russian military activity. Just last month, a Russian missile struck Odessa while Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was visiting the port city with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The missile fell somewhere between 700 and 1,600 feet of the Greek leader, according to multiple reports.
Killing or wounding a NATO leader would not automatically trigger the alliance’s Article 5 collective defense clause. While allies “agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all,” members must agree to invoke Article 5.
NATO’s founding document notes that any military assistance must be given “in accordance with their respective constitutional processes,” meaning the agreement of national decision-making bodies.
The clause has only been invoked once, in support of the U.S. immediately after the 9/11 attacks.
Moscow has repeatedly indicated it will not be deterred by the presence of VIPs in Ukraine. Russian bombs fell on Kyiv in April 2022, for example, while United Nations Secretary General António Guterres was visiting the city.
And in the first hours of Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, Newsweek revealed that the opening bombardment of Kyiv occurred despite the presence in the city of the foreign ministers of Estonia and Latvia. Their Lithuanian counterpart was en route to the Ukrainian capital when the attack began.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.