Russia's Ulyanovsk region, located about 2,250 km northeast of the border with Ukraine, has become the first region in Russia to publicly announce the permanent restriction of access to the mobile internet in some areas due to Ukrainian drones, DPA reported, BTA reported.
The administration of the region, located along the Volga River, announced the restriction, which will operate around strategic sites such as military airfields, weapons factories and energy infrastructure. She did not specify the exact boundaries of the areas where the restriction will be in effect, citing security concerns.
“The reason for this is the strengthening of security measures“, the local authorities said in a post on “Telegram“.
The post emphasizes that, contrary to “some federal and regional sources“, which reported that access to mobile Internet was suspended throughout the Ulyanovsk region, access was suspended only on the territory of certain objects.
Regional Minister of Digital Technologies Oleg Yagfarov said that the restrictions were imposed by order of federal authorities and would remain in force “until the end of the special military operation“, as Russia officially calls the war in Ukraine.
Until now, mobile Internet was turned off during air raids in entire cities and regions, with outages sometimes lasting several hours, DPA reports.
In the capital Moscow and other major cities such as St. Petersburg and Samara, mobile operators are telling customers who file complaints that the outages are due to drone concerns.
What is new, however, is that in the Ulyanovsk region, authorities are now speaking publicly about a permanent outage, albeit a limited geographical one.
Ulyanovsk authorities have recommended that residents in "blind zones" without mobile signal lay an internet cable to their homes at their own expense.
Fear of Ukrainian drone attacks is now widespread in Russia, DPA reports. Due to the increasing number of Ukrainian drone attacks, Russia is mobilizing reservists to protect important facilities such as energy infrastructure.