The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations body, has condemned a series of incidents it says constitute Russian interference in the satellite systems of European countries and called on Russia to end these actions, according to a document published on Monday, reports Reuters, quoted by News.bg.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) last week considered a series of complaints from Ukraine and four European Union countries - France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Luxembourg - about interference with satellite systems in recent months.
The complainants said the incidents blocked GPS signals, threatened air traffic and interrupted children's TV channels to show violent images from the war in Ukraine.
"The Board expressed serious concern about the use of alerts to intentionally cause harmful interference," the Geneva-based ITU Radio Regulatory Board said in a statement. The council said disruptions in French and Swedish satellite networks "appear to originate from ground stations located in the Moscow, Kaliningrad and Pavlovka regions" and called them "extremely alarming and unacceptable. p>
The ITU called on Russia to immediately stop these actions and investigate the incidents. The body also called for a meeting between the affected countries and Russia to resolve the cases and prevent their recurrence.
The Russian diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moscow, which denies violating ITU rules, has also filed a complaint about alleged interference with satellites by NATO, but that issue was not addressed by the ITU during last year's meeting, for reasons that are not clear at this time .
The ITU, made up of 193 member states and based in Geneva, is responsible for regulating and coordinating the global satellite system. Its charter obliges it to coordinate efforts to eliminate harmful interference.