Bulgaria suspects Russia of interfering with a plane carrying the EU Commission president. Vladimir Putin is in China for a summit, where he’s been meeting India’s PM. And a former Donald Trump aide says the US leader has made peace in Ukraine less likely. Follow the latest below.
Monday 1 September 2025 16:00, UK
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A jet carrying the EU Commission president suffered GPS jamming as a result of suspected Russian interference, an EU spokesperson has told Sky News.
The Financial Times had earlier reported the jet carrying Ursula von der Leyen was forced to land using paper maps after GPS navigation services at a Bulgarian airport were disabled.
The aircraft, which was flying to Plovdiv on Sunday afternoon, was deprived of electronic navigational aids as it approached the city’s airport, the FT said.
It circled the airport for an hour before the pilot decided to manually land the plane using paper maps.
‘Blatant interference’ suspected
An EU spokesperson told Sky News: “We can confirm there was GPS jamming but the plane landed safe.
“We have received information from Bulgarian authorities that they suspect this blatant interference was carried out by Russia.
“We are well aware that threats and intimidation are a regular component of Russia’s hostile actions.
“This will further reinforce our unshakable commitment to ramp up our defence capabilities and support for Ukraine.
“This incident underlines the urgency of the president’s current trip to frontline member states, where she has seen first hand the every day threats from Russia and its proxies.
“The EU will continue to invest in defence and in Europe’s readiness.”
Bulgaria issued a statement saying that “the satellite signal used for the aircraft’s GPS navigation was disrupted”.
“As the aircraft approached Plovdiv Airport, the GPS signal was lost,” the statement added.
Earlier this year, Sky News investigated how it’s possible to mess with the GPS used by planes, and rising reports of it happening – tap below for the full story on that:
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is about to speak at a news conference in Romania, after her meeting with the country’s president Nicusor Dan and prime minister Ilie Gavril Bolojan.
It comes after suspected Russian interference meant her jet was forced to land using paper maps this morning after GPS navigation services at a Bulgarian airport were disabled.
We’ll be watching the news conference for any reference to that story and will bring you any updates here.
By Helen-Ann Smith, Asia correspondent
The agreements struck at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit are not what onlookers are likely to remember.
It is the striking optics that will stick.
Leaders from some of the most populous, influential and anti-American nations in the world, all sat together; eating, laughing and nodding along to the idea that they should endeavour to work closer together.
A show absolutely designed to rattle those looking on from the West.
At the centre of it all, of course, was Chinese President Xi Jinping. The staging at the leaders’ meeting spoke volumes; a horseshoe table with Xi at the centre, set slightly apart from the others.
And there is no doubt about who his guest of honour has been, and that is Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Pupils have been returning to schools in Ukraine today for the start of the new academic year.
Since the start of the war, in February 2022, schools have found different ways to keep lessons going for pupils.
In Bobryk, a village in northern Sumy region – not far from the front line – one school has moved its classrooms entirely into a basement so students could learn in person.
“We must do everything so this generation is not lost,” the principal Oleksii Korenivskyi said.
“Time is the only thing you cannot make up. This is our future, and we must give it everything we have.”
Elsewhere, young cadets at a military lyceum in Kyiv took part in a ceremony on the first day of term.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has criticised the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit declaration for not mentioning Russia’s three-year invasion of its smaller neighbour.
“It is surprising that the largest war of aggression in Europe since World War II has not been reflected in such an important, fundamental document,” the ministry said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been pictured hand in hand while at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China.
The Kremlin leader called Modi his “dear friend”, while the Indian PM said his country and Russia stood side by side even when things got difficult.
By Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent
The substance of Vladimir Putin’s speech to the SCO summit was nothing new. But the setting and the context were.
They gave his words a renewed emphasis, which I think will provide the West with concern.
First, the words themselves: the Russian president said the “root causes” of the war in Ukraine need to be “eliminated” for there to be long-term peace.
As I say, nothing new – the phrase has been like a mantra for Moscow throughout the war that serves as shorthand for Russia’s demands around its own security concerns, eg no NATO eastward expansion.
But the context here is crucial.
This speech comes barely two weeks after Putin met Donald Trump in Alaska, where the White House seemed to believe the Kremlin had opened the door to a NATO-style mutual defence mandate for Ukraine, that could serve as a future security guarantee for Kyiv.
Vladimir Putin’s comments in Tianjin suggest the door is in fact still firmly shut.
The setting gave his words more weight too – at a summit where Putin had earlier briefed both Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi on his talks in Alaska and the “understandings” he reached there with Trump.
So not only was Putin reaffirming one of Russia’s red lines, he was also saying that he has the backing of Russia’s principal economic partners to do it.
The White House has applied pressure to both China and India in the hope it’ll move Moscow closer to peace, including 50% tariffs on New Delhi for buying Russian oil.
But instead of driving the allies apart, the images from Tianjin suggest the US president has glued them together.
The three leaders were seen walking together, smiling as they spoke, with Putin and Modi even holding hands at one point.
For the cameras, and the microphones, they presented a united front.
“Even in the most difficult situations, India and Russia have always walked shoulder to shoulder,” the Indian PM said after his meeting with Putin, in a thinly veiled dig at Donald Trump.
President Xi struck a similar tone: “We must continue to take a clear stand against hegemonism and power politics, and practise true multilateralism.”
Putin went to China with the aim of shoring up support from his closest partners and it appears he’s overwhelmingly succeeded.
His message to Trump is this: that pressure on Russia and its allies won’t work, and that if you want to end the war, then apply pressure on Ukraine instead.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to take part in talks with European leaders in Paris on Thursday, as the so-called “coalition of the willing” holds its latest meeting.
The meeting will be co-chaired by Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer at the Elysee Palace and will be held in a hybrid format.
A statement issued by the palace said attendees will “discuss the work on security guarantees for Ukraine carried out in recent weeks” and will “take stock of the consequences to be drawn from the attitude of Russia, which persists in refusing peace”.
Donald Trump is not currently expected to attend the meeting.
We brought you news here yesterday (see 18.20 post) about comments from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said Europe had “pretty precise” plans to send troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission.
Asked today whether von der Leyen had exaggerated how advanced those plans were, commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta said: “It is the view of the president formed through the information that she gets in discussion with the leaders, as well as technical level engagements, that there is a plan that is coming to shape.
“There is a clear roadmap, as she has said, towards building these security guarantees.”
The last time Russia and Belarus held their joint military drills – in 2022 – they were used to mask the build-up of Russian forces for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
A new round of drills involving the two countries is due to begin this month, “Zapad-2025”, prompting concern that Moscow could once again opt to launch an attack on a European country.
However, German defence chief Carsten Breuer said his country does not expect Russian attacks on NATO territory under the cover of the exercises, which are due to kick off in two weeks.
“We don’t have any indication that preparations for an attack are taken under the cover of the exercise,” he told reporters in Berlin.
“But we will be on our guard, not just the German forces, but NATO.”
In terms of numbers for the Zapad drills, the Germans expect 13,000 troops to take part in the exercise in Belarus, with another 30,000 involved in Russia.
Representatives of the NATO-Ukraine Council have called an extraordinary meeting today, Ukraine’s foreign minister says.
Andrii Sybiha said: “We anticipate a focused discussion on joint steps to adequately respond to Russia’s rejection of peace efforts and escalating terror against Ukrainians.”
We’ll bring you any updates from the meeting as we get them.
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