GPS in Russian cities disrupted after Ukrainian attacks

The long-range drones, with which Ukraine attacked a Russian army base, is the reason for Russia to disrupt the GPS signal in the vicinity of sensitive targets.

First successful long-range attack by Ukrainian drones

After many months in which Russian missiles and drones bombarded Ukrainian targets, Ukraine managed to strike back for the first time. Domestically-built souped-up long-range drones allowed them to hit Russian army bases thousands of miles away from the Ukrainian border.

This meant a huge psychological blow to the Russians, who until now felt safe in their huge country. One of the more immediate consequences is that they will now have to base the planes they use to target Ukrainian civilian targets further from the Ukrainian border. The Russians must now also take security measures.

GPS jamming in several major Russian cities

One of these measures seems to be GPS jamming. There was widespread disruption of the GPS signal in several major Russian cities. This happened immediately after the first Ukrainian attacks on Russian targets took place. The GPS signal has never been disrupted on this scale and large cities now often have zones many hundreds of kilometers in diameter in which GPS has become unreliable.

Also disturbance near Putin’s outer palace

These disturbances have been detected around the Russian cities of Saratov, Volgograd and Penta since the beginning of December. All three of these cities are located in western Russia within a few hundred kilometers of the border with Ukraine. These disruptions are also taking place in Moscow.

This also applies to the area around Putin’s outer palace near Sochi, Saint Petersburg and the route of the Turkstream pipeline from Russia to Turkey. A current map of where these disruptions occur can be found on GPSJam. Here you can see, for example, that the signals around Ankara and in Iraqi Kurdistan are also heavily disrupted.