Russian forces spoofed GPS to form letter Z, EU official says

At the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces deliberately "signed" their spoofing operations so that the falsified GPS coordinates on maps would form the letter Z.

European Commissioner for Defense and Space, Andrius Kubilius, stated this during his speech at the "Space for European Resilience" conference in Brussels, CE Report quotes Ukrinform.

Kubilius recalled numerous incidents involving the jamming and spoofing (manipulation of GPS signals) of global satellite navigation systems, including one that occurred with the aircraft he was on together with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as they approached a Bulgarian airport a few months ago.

He pointed out that there had been about 50,000 such flights in a single year and that the Baltic region had seen a fivefold increase in radio frequency interference compared with the previous year.

Kubilius also referred to an interesting detail shared with him by experts in the field. He said that, according to them, Russian forces had spoofed coordinates in such a way that they formed the letter Z on the map. Kubilius added that the letter was significant because it had been painted on Russian tanks when they invaded Ukraine and had since become a symbol of Russian propaganda supporting the war — a totalitarian emblem comparable to the swastika or the hammer and sickle. He noted that the symbol was now banned in Ukraine and other countries, comparing the act to someone robbing a house, setting it on fire, and then leaving their signature behind.

As reported, the chartered plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to Bulgaria in late August had experienced GPS signal interference.