Spanish military jet carrying defence minister hit with ‘cyber attack’ near Russia

The plane was flying near Kaliningrad

Spanish officials have said that the plane suffered a GPS "disturbance" while travelling to Lithuania.

Spanish defence minister Margarita Robles was heading to the Baltic nation to meet with her Lithuanian counterpart Dovile Sakaliene during a visit to the Siauliai airbase.

The military aircraft was flying close to Russia's Kaliningrad on Wednesday morning when the incident is alleged to have occured.

A Spanish defence ministry spokesperson said: "There has been an attempt to disrupt the GPS signal, but as our aircraft has an encrypted system, it was not affected.

"It must be common on this route and also with commercial flights. It is not because it is our aircraft."

The plane was also carrying relatives of Spanish airmen who were travelling to join Spanish airmen recruited as part of a new Nato air defence mission in eastern Europe.

The initiative comes after Poland shot down Russian drones that had violated its airspace.

Eight Russian aircraft were intercepted by a group of Spanish pilots during the course of last week over the Baltic Sea, as per the Spanish defence ministry.