Ukraine failed to block Russian Internet services
The largest Russian Internet services remain very popular in Ukraine even after in may was officially banned in the country.
So, according to statistics “Factrum Group Ukraine” (the report of this company refers to the national Internet Association), in July the social network “In contact” used at least once a month 35% of Internet users in the country, “Yandex” — 33%, Mail.ru — 30% Of “Classmates” — 22%.
All, according to the company, Ukraine is now 21.6 million active Internet users (64.8% of residents). Other statistics of analytical company SimilarWeb also confirms that Ukraine remains “Yandex” and service composition Mail.ru Group (Mail.ru “In contact” and “Classmates”) is the second largest traffic source after Russia.
Moreover, since SimilarWeb captures both the Ukrainian audience only visits the website with local IP addresses, it turns out that all of these users gained access to Russian Internet services without the use of anonymizers and other special software to bypass the Internet lock.
How is that possible? After 16 may, the Ukrainian providers are required to block access to the major Russian services. In the sanctions list included Yandex and assets Mail.ru Group. Local providers must block all services for a period of three years. The adviser to the interior Minister of Ukraine Zoryan Shkiryak then regarded the lock of the Russian services as a victory in the information war.
However, as has been seen recently in Kiev, the journalist of “sheets”, the inhabitants of this city continue to freely use “Yandex. Taxi”, e-mail Mail.ru and other services.
For example, in the network of mobile operator “Kyivstar” was blocked entry to the main page Yandex.ru but is available direct entry to a local version of “Yandex. News” and “Yandex. Weather”, “Yandex. Mail”, it was possible without any restrictions to use Mail.ru “In contact” and “Classmates”. Not always access to these services was limited in public Wi-Fi networks in restaurants and cafes of Kiev.