Officials in Russian-occupied Crimea announced plans for extended mobile Internet shutdowns to counter Ukrainian drone attacks, marking an escalation in communication blackouts that have swept across Russia.
The peninsula’s information ministry stated that mobile Internet could be disabled for a “prolonged period” without specifying the duration, while Sevastopol’s mayor warned of “indefinite” outages. The mayor claimed that locals have grown accustomed to regular shutdowns during Ukrainian drone attacks.
In recent months, mobile Internet service has been intermittently disabled in areas across Russia. State officials say the measures are a necessary defense against Ukrainian drone attacks, but shutdowns have been reported even in Siberian and Far Eastern regions that Ukrainian drones have not reached.