European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane suffered a serious GPS disruption on August 31, over Plovdiv, Bulgaria, forcing pilots to abandon their instruments and rely on paper maps. The incident, suspected to be caused by Russian GPS jamming, has been described as deliberate sabotage aimed at destabilizing EU leadership. Von der Leyen was traveling to Cyprus when the attack occurred, highlighting growing security concerns about Moscow’s electronic warfare tactics as tensions between Russia and the West continue to escalate.
The Western Balkan countries have emerged as a frontline in Russia's geopolitical confrontation with the West. These nations—Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, and Serbia—have been termed by academics at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as "in-between" countries set in an "arc of instability." But what exactly does this mean, and how much of a threat does Russia pose?
Click through the following gallery and learn more about this complex geopolitical situation that could endanger these five states and destabilize the European Union.