An interruption in Internet connectivity was observed in the Kherson region, occupied by the Russian army. Access has been restored, but traffic now passes through Russian rather than Ukrainian infrastructure. This is not a first.
The war continues in Ukraine, both for the control of territories and for the control of the information space. Proof of this is in Kherson, a large city in the south of the country, halfway between Crimea and the agglomeration of Mykolaiv. While fighting is ongoing in the region, with a potential takeover of the city by the Ukrainian army, the control of the telecommunications networks on the spot is also the subject of a confrontation.
This is shown by the latest measurements from NetBlocks, an organization born in 2017 that monitors and documents freedom of access to the Internet around the world and reports any atypical event on a regional or national scale, whether outage, cyberattack or any other disruption. This observatory has been following the situation in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict, with the attempted invasion launched on February 24th.
In a tweet posted on May 30, NetBlocks rightly reports that Internet access in the city of Kherson – which has just over 280,000 inhabitants in normal times – was briefly interrupted, before being restored. But from one event to another, the flow of Internet traffic has changed. Connections no longer go through the Ukrainian network, but through Russian infrastructures. This is not the first time this has happened, especially in this city.
” The incident affects several Internet service providers and comes as Ukraine launches a counter-offensive against the Russian occupation observes NetBlocks. The city is today practically surrounded by the Russian army, which consolidates its positions on the spot, while the Ukrainian forces progress in the region, with difficulty. They are currently located about a hundred kilometers north of the town.
” Measurements indicate that internet connectivity on provider Skynet (Khersontelecom) in the Russian-occupied city of Kherson in southern Ukraine has been partially restored and again redirected via Russia’s Rostelecom and Miranda in Crimea instead. of Ukrainian infrastructure “, continues NetBlocks in another tweet. A takeover of the city by Ukraine would lead to a re-switch to Ukrainian networks.
Not the first traffic diversion
Kherson has already suffered a similar scenario at the beginning of May. A dramatic drop in connectivity had been observed in Kherson. When the links were restored, it appeared that the traffic was no longer following the path it was following before the cut. However, this re-routing of communications did not last very long: less than three days later, the links had been restored so that they no longer passed through Russian infrastructures.
These attempts to take control of the telecommunications networks obviously aim to establish Russian control over these occupied territories and anchor them under the domination of Moscow, possibly with a view to subsequent assimilation. It has been shown, moreover, that the Kremlin facilitates the distribution of passports in Kherson, and elsewhere, with a view to attachment. Network control is part of this strategy, including censorship and surveillance.
