The Russian military is using the Starlink satellite Internet system during combat operations in occupied Ukrainian territories, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate.
Author: Meduza
On January 30, the Russian Internet failed for several hours. More specifically, websites using the .RU Top Level Domain stopped loading for Internet users both in Russia and abroad. The incident affected online giants like the search engine Yandex, the social network Vkontakte, and the e-commerce platform Ozon, as well as the websites of several major banks and online marketplaces. Russia’s Digital Development Ministry later confirmed the suspicions of specialists, announcing that the entire .RU domain temporarily lost its DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions), meaning that the digital signatures used to ensure normal web browsing suddenly broke. Meduza explains how this likely happened, where the RuNet is headed, and why the chaos of Russia’s Internet repressions after invading Ukraine has given way to a more coherent online isolation plan.
Story by Tatyana Zverintseva from Mediazona Central Asia. Abridged translation by Sam Breazeale.