Ukraine apologises to Lithuania over stray drones as Lithuania says Russia's Kaliningrad GPS spoofing antennae rose from three to 36

Ukraine apologised to Lithuania on Sunday after its drones may have strayed into Lithuanian airspace during an operation against Russian military targets. Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi wrote on X that the incident may have resulted from Russian electronic warfare diverting the drones, and said Kyiv would share all relevant information with Lithuanian partners to establish the full circumstances.

Darius Kuliesius, deputy head of Lithuania's communications regulator, told Reuters on Tuesday that Russia has increased the number of GPS spoofing antennae in its Kaliningrad exclave from three in early 2025 to 36 now. He said the capability could falsify signals across a radius of up to 450 km. A regulator map indicated that interference could reach Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, most of Poland, parts of Finland, Sweden and Belarus, and the Baltic Sea, with the range estimated by analysing disturbances in ADS-B aviation surveillance transmissions. Kuliesius said the interference has also degraded mobile phone networks near Kaliningrad on some frequencies, and that spoofing and jamming intensify during Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia. Most modern passenger aircraft and major airports have other navigation tools available if GPS fails.

On May 19, a Romanian NATO fighter jet shot down a suspected Ukrainian drone over Estonia after it entered southeastern Estonia from Russia, and NATO said an investigation was under way. Latvia issued an air threat alert the same day after a drone entered its airspace. On May 15, Helsinki airport suspended traffic for three hours after Finnish authorities warned of suspected drone activity in the capital region. Since March, several Ukrainian military drones have strayed into the airspace of Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.