Russia cut mobile internet access in the capital on Tuesday, May 5th ahead of Victory Day commemorations, which are being held amid heightened fears of retaliatory Ukrainian drone strikes.
Mobile operator MTS informed its subscribers
During the preparations for and the conduct of festive events from May 5 to 9, there may be temporary restrictions on mobile internet and SMS services in Moscow and the Moscow region.
The Kremlin maintains that these intermittent outages are necessary to disable Ukrainian UAVs, which allegedly utilize local cellular networks for navigation.
The impact was felt immediately across Moscow on Tuesday, with many retailers unable to process card transactions. Additionally, ATMs, ride-hailing services, and digital maps were severely hampered by the connectivity issues.
