Occupation authorities in Crimea prepare to expand internet shutdown practices – CNR
In temporarily occupied Crimea, the practice of shutting down or deliberately slowing mobile internet access is becoming a permanent norm.
The Center of National Resistance (CNR) stated this on its website, according to Ukrinform.
This was publicly stated by the occupation head of the peninsula, Sergey Aksyonov, who justified the restrictions with "security considerations" and the need to counter threats during the so-called "special military operation."
"As a result, digital shutdowns are no longer a temporary measure but are being entrenched as an element of a long-term governance model," the statement said.
The CNR emphasized that the real purpose of these decisions is not security but tighter control over the population. Under the guise of combating hostile propaganda, a regime is being formed in which access to communications becomes a variable that can be restricted at any moment—without clear timeframes, criteria, or public explanations. This creates a state of constant uncertainty and demonstrates the authorities' readiness to unilaterally limit basic channels of communication.
CNR insiders also report that security agencies are pushing to expand the practice of shutdowns during "inconvenient periods"—such as during shelling, high-profile incidents, or spikes in social discontent. According to them, mobile internet is viewed as a risk factor precisely because it enables rapid self-organization of the population, documentation of abuses, and the spread of unofficial information.
In practical terms, such restrictions lead to the degradation of social and economic infrastructure: access to emergency services, healthcare, financial services, and independent news sources becomes more difficult. Under occupation conditions, internet shutdowns are turning from a technical measure into an instrument of repressive and preventive policy.
Previously, the CNR documented similar practices when communications in the temporarily occupied cities of Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk, and Rubizhne were deliberately cut off not for technical reasons, but as part of a deliberately engineered information blockade. Digital restrictions are being integrated into the ideology of the occupation authorities as a necessary component of governance. Security rhetoric is used as a cover for systemic control over the information space and the gradual transfer of Crimea's population into a state of managed isolation and complete dependence on the official agenda, the Center added.
As Ukrinform previously reported, occupiers in Crimea are massively shutting down mobile communications and internet access.
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