Communications of the ACM
How Russia Took Over Ukraine's Internet in Occupied Territories
A destroyed shopping mall in Kherson, Ukraine, where residents are being forced to use Russian cellular networks.
Credit: Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Several weeks after taking over Ukraine's southern port city of Kherson, Russian soldiers arrived at the offices of local internet service providers and ordered them to give up control of their networks.
"They came to them and put guns to their head and just said, 'Do this,'" said Maxim Smelyanets, who owns an internet provider that operates in the area and is based in Kyiv. "They did that step by step for each company."
Russian authorities then rerouted mobile and internet data from Kherson through Russian networks, government and industry officials said. They blocked access to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as to Ukrainian news websites and other sources of independent information. Then they shut off Ukrainian cellular networks, forcing Kherson's residents to use Russian mobile service providers instead.
From The New York Times
View Full Article
No entries found