Ukraine internet outages spark concerns of broader blackout

Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge

Russian troops invaded Ukrainian territories across the country's northern, southern, and eastern borders late Wednesday night. As Russian media tries to portray the invasion as a response to Ukrainian aggression, on-the-ground reporting has played a crucial role in counteracting the propaganda.

Civil society groups are increasingly concerned about the possibility of direct attacks on the country's internet infrastructure. Russia has previously been linked to attacks against Ukrainian government sites, but a full black out would mean disabling telecommunications infrastructure at the network level, and also shutting down Ukrainians in the process.

Some parts of the country have lost internet access. The second-largest city in the country is located in the northeast of the country, around 25 miles from the Russian border. The Internet Outage Detection and Analysis project at Georgia Tech reported partial internet disruptions on February 23rd and 24th. The internet service provider, which serves a number of cities and other areas across the country, is experiencing issues.

NetBlocks said that Triolan users had reported the loss of fixed-line internet services while cellphones continued to work.

A partial or complete lack of access was advised on the Triolan website on Thursday. The company posted updates on its official Telegram channel that claimed service had largely been restored, but responses suggested that many customers were still experiencing network issues.

The updates noted that the server that sends requests to a human-readable URL like "theverge.com" was experiencing some issues. The customers were told to use the 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 services.

The traffic monitoring shows that Ukrainian internet services are mostly operational but that connections from Kharkiv are disrupted.

The internet continues to operate in Ukraine for most of the time. We usually see about 80 percent of the load in Ukraine. The traffic from Kharkiv seems to be 50 percent below normal.

There are indications that the power went out after explosions were heard in the area. Similar targeted strikes against other internet service providers are likely to be involved in a blanket attempt to shut down internet access.

According to Ukrainian media, Russian forces have conducted a number of air and ground strikes against strategic targets across Ukraine, hitting military command centers and transport hubs, but no concentrated attack on telecommunications services has yet been reported.

Open internet advocates fear that the disruptions could herald a strategic intent to limit information flows from the region, based on previous incidents in which internet infrastructure has been targeted in active war zones. The impact of internet shutdowns in other conflict zones around the world was pointed out by a campaigner for digital rights organization Access Now.

The destruction of Yemen's telecom infrastructure due to Saudi-led airstrikes was a case in point.

In the past, blackouts have been used in military actions. Almost all of the country was without internet for at least three days because of a strike against the port city of Hodeidah. The highest number of shutdowns in 2020 took place in India, where the government cut internet services in the disputed Kashmir region more than 100 times.

It would benefit Russia in the short term if there was a shutdown. As the invasion began, many researchers sharing user-generated video from the region were suspended from their accounts, which was blamed on a moderation error. The risk of human rights abuses increases if internet disruptions become widespread.

When the internet is shut down, we receive reports of human rights violations by state and non-state actors.