Major Internet providers in Ukraine on May 16 held an informal discussion of President Petro Poroshenko’s decree blocking access to a number of Internet-resources and concluded that they need additional explanations from the authorities, an informed source told Interfax.
“So far most agree that they need to wait for an additional regulatory document,” the source said.
It has been agreed to continue the discussion to work out common decisions and positions, the source said.
The new sanctions require Internet providers to bar user access to www.kaspersky.ru, www.drweb.ru, www.mail.ru, dozens of Yandex resources, and two social-networking sites, VK and Odnoklassniki.
Ukraine’s government, Security Service and National Bank have been instructed to ensure the implementation and monitoring of the efficiency of the individual special economic sanctions.
The country’s biggest fixed-line operator, Urktelecom, on May 16 announced that it has already started implementing the sanctions decree: “Work will be carried out in stages and, according to specialists’ preliminary estimate, will take several days up to a week.” The company motivated this time length by the complexity of the process and the need to engage significant resources.
Today Ukrtelecom provides Internet access in almost 2,140 towns and villages across the country and is one of the biggest market players. By early 2017 it was providing Internet access to around 1.6 million users.
Ukraine’s largest mobile operator Kyivstar said in a comment to Interfax that it operates entirely within the Ukrainian law, is currently studying the presidential decree and preparing technical possibilities for its implementation. The company gave no further details.
The country’s second largest mobile operator, Vodafone Ukraine, also told Interfax that it is ready to comply with the sanctions resolution, but declined to elaborate.
