Kyivstar, a mobile and internet service provider in Mariupol, located in southeast Ukraine, had 148 cell towers up and running when the Russians invaded the eastern European country. The wireless signals they transmitted were a critical lifeline, connecting loved ones and providing information to citizens. But working cell towers are becoming scarce.
“One by one all these base stations went down,” Volodymyr Lutchenko, Kyivstar’s chief technology officer, told Wired Magazine. “First of all, because of the power connection, then because of the physical damage.”
Now, with a death toll that stands at 5,000, and 90 percent of buildings damaged, 170,000 people in Mariupol are trapped, with no way to communicate to the outside world through traditional methods. But if the Ukrainians have taught the world anything, it is that they are a resourceful and resilient people. Using apps downloaded from the internet, they are communicating using the bluetooth signals on their cell phones to create mesh communications networks.
Additionally, Russia has bombed television towers and hit internet providers with disruptive cyberattacks, eliminating both people’s ability to communicate and their ability to monitor the war. “We have a number of cities that are currently without telecommunications,” Ukraine’s cybersecurity agency, told Wired Magazine on March 29.
In early March, Politico outlined three reasons Russians would leave the cell towers alone. Cell service allows intelligence services to eavesdrop on cell phone calls and emails and to gather geolocation on the Ukrainians, and the Russian army could use the Ukrainian commercial networks. “Russian forces don’t want to destroy the infrastructure that they will need if they succeed in conquering Ukraine,” the publication said.
However, in Mariupol, cell service was being adversely affected by power outages. Elsewhere, on March 3, a telecom blackout was reported in Sumy in northeastern Ukraine, which was one of the “most serious communications disruptions” of the conflict at that time. It also occurred because of power outages, according to NetBlocks, a global internet monitor.
“Residents have reported massive blasts at a thermal power plant and electrical substation. A power outage tracker monitoring the region also said that it was no longer receiving data for Sumy Oblast,” NetBlocks tweeted.
On April 2, NetBlocks reported a “sustained collapse” in connectivity across multiple internet providers in Lozova and Kharkiv, Ukraine, as a result of Russian bombs knocking out power and damaging infrastructure.
In February, Forbes reported that Ukrainians were preparing for either the loss of the internet in their country, or the closure of the internet enforced by the Russians by downloading apps for offline, private, mesh communications.
“The top apps being downloaded in Ukraine right now are Signal, the private messaging app, Bridgefy, which enables communications without the internet via mesh networking, Maps.me, an offline mapping app, and several ‘walkie-talkie’ apps that enable free communication without sign-ups or personal information,” Forbes reported.
By J. Sharpe Smith, Inside Towers Technology Editor
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