In occupied areas of Ukraine The Internet comes under the control of Russia. Web traffic is redirected, and subjected to the Kremlin’s powerful surveillance and censorship machine.
In the city of Cherson, for example, at the end of May the Internet connections suddenly went down without users being able to connect and view the web pages.
The black-out of online communications, which lasted for some time, was not caused by breakdowns, damage or malfunctions of the system. Behind the scenes, the Russian occupiers forced Ukrainian providers such as SkyNet (Khersontelekom) to disconnect and run the connection through the Russian infrastructure.
Attack on Ukrainian providers
NetBlocks, a London-based site dedicated to Internet monitoring, has registered a total blockade that affected the whole Cherson region affecting various web service providers.
The Russian troops who, in the case of Status broke into the company’s premises, forced the Isp (Internet service provider) Ukrainians to divert traffic to the Rostelecom and Miranda Media networks (formed after the annexation of Crimea in 2014), under the direct control of Moscow and its allies.
Lot of Ukrainian users are faced with a difficult choice : remain disconnected without being able to communicate or obtain online access but being subjected to the watchful eye of the Russian state.
Overall, according to Liliia Malon, commissioner of the regulatory authority of digital infrastructures and telecommunications of Ukraine, there are over 700 providers of Zelensky’s country present in the occupied areas, likely to become the object of Russia’s aims.
Donbass goal
Also in the Donbass, the Russian strategy is to annex territories and the Internet. In this region, coverage of three of the largest Ukrainian online service providers was drastically reduced due to bombing damage. In this regard, it should be emphasized that, according to the agency’s data cybersicurezza (State Services for Special Communication and Information Protection – SssCip)the war caused at least 20 per cent of Ukraine’s entire telecommunications infrastructure to be damaged or destroyed.
In a situation of continuous emergency, in which engineers and technicians strive to ensure network operations, Kyivstar, the largest broadband and mobile provider in Ukraine (20 million users), is able to provide connectivity to only a quarter of the customers served in Donetsk before the offensive Russia and 10 percent in Luhansk. The telecommunications group Ukrtelecom, on the other hand, cut off all connections in Luhansk. While Lifecell remained with a residual coverage of 9 percent in Luhansk and 66 percent in Donetsk.
In a study by researchers from the Paris-8 University it is highlighted how the Internet in Donbass, after the 2014 offensive, as well as Crimea, has progressively passed into the hands of separatists and invaders, integrated into the networks of the Russian Federation.
Putin’s army tries, first of all, to take over the structures, expropriating means and technological equipment. After that, once they get hold of the equipment, Ukrainian personnel are asked to reconfigure the networks to subordinate them to the Moscow government. And, in case of lack of help, the Russian forces act autonomously, managing alone to carry out this task.
Mobile traffic in the sights
Russia, in parallel, is moving to control cellular traffic. In the Donbass there has been a rapid expansion of the activity of mobile operators of separatists such as Phoenix and Lugacom who have made use of facilities seized from the Ukrainian companies Lifecell and Kyvstar. Confiscation of Ukrainian technology moreover, it entailed the possibility of conducting cyber attacks (such as those of the SS7 type for the purpose of telephone espionage) against enemy targets, in the context of the cyberwarfare in progress.
However, according to what is reported in the Enea AdaptiveMobile Security blog, new cellular communication towers have also been built. Base stations have sprung up in the Novokrasnovka, Starchenkovo, and Berdyansk areas. Near the city of Kharkiv, Ukrainian military intelligence he also denounced the installation of facilities for Megafon, the second largest mobile telephone operator in Russia. In Cherson, on the other hand, a new telephone company has appeared and sim cards with a Russian prefix have been put on sale.
Russification of cyberspace
Take control of servers, transmission lines, and cell towers – all crucial infrastructures, which allow free access to the Internet – are an integral part of the Russification process of the occupied territories carried out by the Kremlin. Which means bring back under a centralized data monitoring mechanism and online traffic information. In recent years, Moscow has prepared systems such as Sorm, to which web companies and Internet providers must submit, which allow Russian officials to spy on online traffic and intercept text messages, emails, and phone calls in defiance of users’ rights, freedoms and privacy. .
The war leads to exacerbation of control from above, “intimately involved in the daily control of the lives of its citizens” (David Lyon), which is exercised in an increasingly rigid form, without any possibility of reciprocity, and exacerbating the dimension of isolation outward aiming at a sovereign network. “The Russian networks – explains Liliia Malon – are totally under the power of Moscow”. Re-directing the Internet in the invaded territories means promoting the propaganda of the Kremlin which aims to weaken the resistance and discredit the Ukrainian authorities by making the population believe that they have been abandoned by their leaders to create consensus in this way for the Russian occupation.