Russia Blocks Signal, Curbs YouTube, As Ukraine Troop Incursion Results In 76,000+ Civilians Evacuated

Ukraine forces’ cross-border attack into Russia’s Kursk region has entered a fifth day, with the Russian defense ministry acknowledging it is “continuing to repel” the offensive which has shocked Kremlin leadership and the population.

But this has apparently led to crackdowns on US-based social media platforms and messaging apps. Friday into Saturday there have been widespread reports that Russia has blocked the Signal messaging app while also throttling YouTube.

State media regulator Roskomnadzor told the RBC business daily on Friday that Signal has been banned from the country for “violations” of national law.

It has been restricted “due to violations of the requirements of Russian legislation, compliance with which is necessary to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes,” Roskomnadzor stated.

The statement came Friday within hours after users across Russia complained of widespread outages for the secure messaging app which allows for communication via encrypted text and calls.

Russian opposition activist and independent journalists who are critical of the Kremlin have complained that this move primarily targets them, as they heavily rely on Signal in their reporting and to talk to sources. Similarly, Russia had banned Telegram’s messaging app in 2018.

As for YouTube, while it has not been banned, users have noticed loading speeds significantly drop. Some regions of Russia have seen users say that it is inaccessible. This as Russian reserve and national defense convoys have been observed on Russian highways headed south in large numbers.

Today, #Russia initiated a block on the #Signal web messenger (@signalapp), known for its robust encryption, aiming to hinder Russians from sharing videos, photos, and news about the invasion of the #Kursk region by Ukrainian forces and possible coordination of subsequent… https://t.co/CO37rSBZnK

— Viktor Kovalenko (@MrKovalenko) August 9, 2024

Al Jazeera interviewed users and wrote this week:

Russian internet monitoring service Sboi.rf said thousands of glitches had been reported on Thursday with users saying they could only access the platform through virtual private networks (VPNs).

“YouTube is not working,” one anonymous user said in comments on the site.

Reuters news agency reporters in Russia were unable to access YouTube. The website remained available on some mobile devices.

A Russian political scientist named Boris Pastukhov, who maintains a popular YouTube channel, has said, “We’ve seen that particular regions lose Youtube connectivity overall or slow down by 90 percent for a few days, which is not really explainable by servers being old.”

The fear is that YouTube could be next to be blocked by Kremlin authorities, but this would prove a deeply unpopular move among the Russian population. Reports commonly estimate that more than 50 million Russians use YouTube every day.

The US is actively enabling a literal ground invasion of Russia at the moment, and it’s not even being treated like a particularly big story

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) August 10, 2024

At this point a whopping 76,000+ Russians living near southern border areas have had to evacuate their homes amid the ongoing Ukrainian cross-border offensive. 

According to a regional summary of Saturday events:

Moscow on Saturday mounted a “counter-terror operation” in three border regions adjoining Ukraine to halt Kyiv’s advance deeper into Russia and warned that the fighting endangered a nuclear power plant.

Ukrainian units stormed into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in a shock attack, the largest and most successful cross-border offensive by Kyiv of the two-and-a-half-year conflict.

Its troops have advanced several kilometers and Russia’s army has rushed in reserves and extra equipment, including convoys of tanks, rocket launchers and aviation units – though neither side has given precise details on the extent of the forces they have committed.

Russia’s nuclear agency on Saturday warned the Ukrainian attack posed a “direct threat” to the nearby Kursk nuclear power station.

At least 16,000 civilians have left their homes in Russian border areas, where emergency aid and medical supplies have been ferried in, and extra trains to the capital Moscow have been put on for people fleeing.

TASS has subsequently put this figure at over 76,000 Russian citizens who have had to be emergency evacuated to safety as fighting encroached on dozens of towns and villages, citing the country’s Emergencies Ministry.

President Putin has accused Ukrainian troops of “indiscriminately firing various types of weapons, including missiles, at civilian facilities, residential buildings, and ambulances.” US-supplied equipment, especially Bradley Fighting Vehicles, have been observed during the assault.

The Russians published a video of the transfer of forces to the Kursk region. On the last seconds of the video an interesting vehicle can be see – MT-LB with an installed Grad-1 rocket launcher pic.twitter.com/oOcUVokKog

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 9, 2024

Verifiable information coming from the areas of fighting in Kursk has been scant. Each side is claiming successes and advances, but as we detailed Friday President Putin and top Kremlin leadership were caught off guard by these surprise developments.

With scenes like the below now widely unfolding in Russia’s southern oblasts, Moscow is likely about to hit Ukraine hard, but it must restore stability and security to Kursk, Belgorod, and Lipetsk first.

Government of Kursk region of Russia/AP

With evidence of a large-scale tank deployment on its own territory to repel the Ukrainian invaders, Russia is very likely to accelerate its war in Ukraine. This is indeed a significant turning point, and not helping matters is the fact that the US is appearing to positively back the cross-border move by Kiev.