The Russian invasion has severely harmed internet access in Ukraine, notably in the country’s southern and eastern regions, where combat has been the most intense, according to NetBlocks, an internet blockage monitoring service. According to Russia’s Interfax news agency, Russian soldiers occupied Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine on Saturday, as Moscow conducted coordinated cruise missile and artillery strikes on multiple towns, including the capital Kyiv.
According to NetBlocks, connectivity to GigaTrans, Ukraine’s primary internet provider, plummeted to 20% of usual levels before recovering to normal in the early hours of Friday morning. “We presently observe nationwide connectivity at 87 percent of normal levels,” Alp Toker, head of NetBlocks, told Reuters. “This figure incorporates service problems as well as population flight and the shuttering of houses and businesses since the morning of the 24th.”
