Network data from NetBlocks confirm a significant disruption to internet service in Luhansk, Eastern Ukraine on Thursday 17 February 2022. Metrics show a multi-hour loss of connectivity on infrastructure used by the Vodafone mobile network, corroborating user reports of loss of cellular service in Luhansk and Donetsk.
ℹ️ Update: Mobile internet service is returning to Vodafone subscribers in #Luhansk, eastern #Ukraine, after a network disruption that lasted over an hour and had high impact near the border with Russia.
📰 Report: https://t.co/d8QWF8m0Kz pic.twitter.com/A1oEXeiv4j
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) February 17, 2022
The incident comes amid ongoing tensions with neighboring Russia and has sparked fears of impending conflict amongst subscribers and their contacts in Luhansk, which is situated close to the border with Russia. The outage comes amid shelling and military activity in the region.
On Friday 18 February 2022, Anton Gerashchenko, Adviser to the Minister of the Interior of Ukraine, attributed the disruption to an act of ‘purposeful sabotage’ targeting communications fiber networks to interfere with the work of a mobile operator, blaming Russian involvement.
ℹ️ Update: #Ukraine's Adviser to the Minister of the Interior has supplied an update on yesterday's Luhansk/Donetsk telecoms disruption, blaming Russian involvement and citing 'purposeful sabotage' to interfere in the work of a mobile operator.
📰 Report: https://t.co/d8QWF8m0Kz pic.twitter.com/bOs01TxxY8
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) February 18, 2022
Further reading:
- Mobile internet returns to Vodafone subscribers in Luhansk – The Guardian
- Incident of unidentified cause impacts connectivity in Luhansk, Ukraine – La Patilla
Previously:
- Ukraine Defense Ministry, banks hit by cyberattack amid tensions with Russia – The Hill
- Ukraine Ministry of Defense confirms DDoS attack; state banks loses connectivity – ZDNet
- Ukraine Hit with Cyberattacks as Tensions with Russia Continue – Gizmodo
- Ukraine faces more cyberattacks amid Russian invasion fears – Engadget
- Ukraine’s defence ministry and two banks targeted in cyberattack – Euronews
Methodology
NetBlocks diffscans, which map the IP address space of a country in real time, show internet connectivity levels and corresponding outages. Purposeful internet outages may have a distinct network pattern used by NetBlocks to determine and attribute the root cause of an outage, a process known as attribution which follows detection and classification stages.
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