||||||||

Ukraine War: How has the Internet Changed in Ukraine 12 Months on

Photo of Aftab Siddiqui

Aftab Siddiqui

Former Senior Manager, Internet Technology - Asia-Pacific, Internet Society

Categories:

It has been a year since Russian forces moved into Ukraine. Since then, Ukraine's Internet connectivity has been affected by the ongoing war, particularly in the southern and eastern parts of the country where fighting has been heaviest.

Last year, Time covered in detail how Internet infrastructure is being targeted in Ukraine and how volunteers are helping restore the infrastructure wherever possible. The New York Times also published a piece on how Internet traffic from the Ukranian city of Kherson is being diverted through Russia.

We decided to look at what’s happened to Ukraine’s Internet using Internet number resource (IPv4, IPv6, and ASN) allocation data to see how things have changed from February 2022 to February 2023.

A Quick Overview of Internet Number Resources

The Internet is a collection of networks, nearly 77,000 to be precise. In general, every one of these networks autonomously maintains how the traffic flows within it and is called an Autonomous System (AS). To identify these networks — or ASes — across the global Internet, every network is assigned a unique number: an Autonomous System Number (ASN). Just as every network needs a unique number, every device connected to the Internet also requires a unique number, otherwise known as an Internet Protocol Address (IP address), either IPv4 or IPv6.

IPv4 and IPv6 address space and ASNs are collectively known as Internet number resources and are allocated by the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). Anyone operating a network can become a member of an RIR and request Internet number resources. Ukraine’s ASNs and IP address space are allocated and administered by the RIPE NCC, the RIR for Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Central Asia.

The Number Resource Organisation (NRO), the coordinating body for the five RIRs, makes all ASN, IPv4, and IPv6 address allocation data public via its daily delegation file.

ASNs

On 5 February 2022, the NRO delegation file suggests that there were 2,197 ASNs allocated to networks in Ukraine (Figure 1). As we can see, there has been a lot of movement over the past 12 months, which is not uncommon.

At one point, 2,199 ASNs were delegated to networks in Ukraine. The decline in the number of ASNs means that either the ASNs have been returned to the available pool by the networks in Ukraine or the holder of the ASN changed the country of origin from UA to something else.

Graph showing the number of ASNs delegated by RIPE NCC to networks in Ukraine since 5 January 2022.
Figure 1 — The number of ASNs delegated by RIPE NCC to networks in Ukraine (5 January 2022 to 5 February 2022). Note, this data only shows the number of ASNs that RIPE NCC assigned to networks in Ukraine. It doesn't show that all of them were being used to route Internet traffic. Source: NRO.

In the last 12 months, more than 100 network registrations have moved out of Ukraine. More than 40 of these are now registered in Russia (Table 1).

24 February 2022

19 February 2023

24 February 2022

19 February 2023

24 February 2022

19 February 2023

UA 12959

RU 12959

UA 42301

RU 42301

UA 47379

RU 47379

UA 196705

RU 196705

UA 42393

RU 42393

UA 47939

RU 47939

UA 197129

RU 197129

UA 42394

RU 42394

UA 48711

RU 48711

UA 197880

RU 197880

UA 42511

RU 42511

UA 49075

RU 49075

UA 199908

RU 199908

UA 42518

RU 42518

UA 49536

RU 49536

UA 21087

RU 21087

UA 42534

RU 42534

UA 49803

RU 49803

UA 24758

RU 24758

UA 43564

RU 43564

UA 50210

RU 50210

UA 29031

RU 29031

UA 43802

RU 43802

UA 51153

RU 51153

UA 31387

RU 31387

UA 44240

RU 44240

UA 56676

RU 56676

UA 41039

RU 41039

UA 44269

RU 44269

UA 57093

RU 57093

UA 41082

RU 41082

UA 44584

RU 44584

UA 8381

RU 8381

UA 41308

RU 41308

UA 44857

RU 44857

UA 8654

RU 8654

UA 41479

RU 41479

UA 44878

RU 44878

N/A

N/A

UA 41914

RU 41914

UA 47124

RU 47124

N/A

N/A

UA 42104

RU 42104

UA 47243

RU 47243

N/A

N/A

Interestingly, the RIPE NCC transfer data shows that only the following five ASNs have been transferred in the last 12 months:

  • AS12959 Anton Bobrovnikov Teleradiocompany Nadezhda Ltd 13/09/2022 POLICY
  • AS210877 Towse'e Saman Information Technology Co. PJS TS Information Technology Limited 09/12/2022 POLICY
  • AS41039 Timer, LLC LLC "FTICOM" 30/09/2022 POLICY
  • AS44269 Informational-measuring systems Ltd. Electro-Communication Telecom Ltd 23/12/2022 POLICY
  • AS198654 PEKITEL Ltd. Ltd. Alfa Telecom 31/01/2017 POLICY AS48654 RTK-centr ltd. Balnet Ltd. 08/03/2022 POLICY

Why all of the 43 ASNs mentioned in the table above are not shown in the RIPE NCC transfer data is not clear to me. It could be due to the NWI-10 policy, which updated the country codes in delegated statistics: perhaps these networks changed their addresses from Ukraine to Russia.

Learn more about the RIPE NW1-10 policy and about its impact on the delegation statistics.

Table 2 shows which of the 100 moved or deregistered ASNs are now listed as Available or Reserved in the delegation file. These ASNs could be reassigned to other entities in the RIPE region.

24 February 2022

19 February 2023

24 February 2022

19 February 2023

UA 197361

ZZ 197361 reserved

UA 198306

ZZ 198306 available

UA 197433

ZZ 197433 reserved

UA 29249

ZZ 29249 available

UA 198439

ZZ 198439 reserved

UA 39333

ZZ 39333 available

UA 206424

ZZ 206424 reserved

UA 39693

ZZ 39693 available

UA 210071

ZZ 210071 reserved

UA 40965

ZZ 40965 available

UA 24896

ZZ 24896 reserved

UA 41158

ZZ 41158 available

UA 28926

ZZ 28926 reserved

UA 41348

ZZ 41348 available

UA 31448

ZZ 31448 reserved

UA 41873

ZZ 41873 available

UA 33851

ZZ 33851 reserved

UA 42502

ZZ 42502 available

UA 35406

ZZ 35406 reserved

UA 44803

ZZ 44803 available

UA 42434

ZZ 42434 reserved

UA 47235

ZZ 47235 available

UA 44487

ZZ 44487 reserved

UA 48280

ZZ 48280 available

UA 47600

ZZ 47600 reserved

N/A

N/A

UA 57025

ZZ 57025 reserved

N/A

N/A

UA 60298

ZZ 60298 reserved

N/A

N/A

Figure 2 and Table 3 show the other countries in which the ASNs previously allocated to networks in Ukraine have ended up.

Figure 2 — Where ASNs allocated to Ukraine networks have been transferred since February 2022.

24 February 2022

19 February 2023

24 February 2022

19 February 2023

UA 196741

GB 196741

UA 34046

SC 34046

UA 197335

GE 197335

UA 34633

SK 34633

UA 198109

US 198109

UA 42564

PL 42564

UA 202580

SC 202580

UA 43123

LV 43123

UA 204789

GB 204789

UA 47517

LK 47517

UA 206053

BY 206053

UA 47752

UZ 47752

UA 206439

VN 206439

UA 48440

BG 48440

UA 206447

RO 206447

UA 49704

BG 49704

UA 20724

CA 20724

UA 50297

LT 50297

UA 210119

SC 210119

UA 50499

CA 50499

UA 210132

HK 210132

UA 51306

FR 51306

UA 210138

BZ 210138

UA 56421

EE 56421

UA 212187

US 212187

UA 58215

CZ 58215

UA 212389

BE 212389

UA 61336

SC 61336

UA 25053

AT 25053

UA 61357

NL 61357

UA 25235

IL 25235

UA 61376

LV 61376

UA 28776

MT 28776

N/A

N/A

Out of the 33 ASN mentioned above, the following six ASNs were transferred to other entities per the RIPE NCC resource transfer policy:

  • AS196741 LLC "IT HOME" Dataart Solutions Inc. 09/12/2019 POLICY AS196741 DataArt_Technologies UK Ltd LLC "IT HOME" 01/06/2022 POLICY
  • AS197335 Artem Zubkov Freebit LLC 02/11/2022 POLICY
  • AS206447 LLHOST INC. SRL LLHost Inc 13/10/2022 POLICY
  • AS28776 ISV TECH LIMITED SoftServe Ltd. 22/06/2022 POLICY
  • AS34633 Tiramix s.r.o. UKRINDEX LLC 15/02/2023 POLICY
  • AS56421 Eurolir OU LLC "WEECOMI UKRAINE" 27/12/2022 POLICY

IPv4 and IPv6 Address Space

There has been a clear decline in IPv4 address block allocations to Ukraine in the last 12 months (Figure 3). 

Graph showing the number of IPv4 addresses allocated by RIPE NCC to networks in Ukraine since 5 January 2022.
Figure 3 — The number of IPv4 addresses delegated by RIPE NCC to networks in Ukraine (5 January 2022 to 5 February 2022). Source: NRO.

However, just like ASNs, many IPv4 and IPv6 address blocks have been assigned to networks in Ukraine, and many have moved out.

For example, 29 /24 IPv4 blocks (7,424 IPv4 addresses) were allocated by RIPE NCC to networks in Ukraine in the last 12 months.

If we look at the number of IPv6 addresses (Figure 4), we can see a definitive drop—5% in total—in the last 12 months. Of these:

  • Five IPv6 address blocks were returned to RIPE NCC to be reallocated.
  • 33 IPv6 address blocks were either transferred to other networks outside Ukraine or the resource holders changed their country of origin from Ukraine to others countries. Note: all of these were transferred to LVNET Ltd, a service provider based in Cyprus.
Graph showing the number of IPv6 addresses allocated by RIPE NCC to networks in Ukraine since 5 January 2022.
Figure 4 — The number of IPv6 addresses delegated by RIPE NCC to networks in Ukraine (5 January 2022 to 5 February 2022). Source: NRO.

While some networks disappeared from the global routing table, we also witnessed some resilience. For example, on 3 March 2022, AS6712 - FORMAT-TV-AS, based in Mariupol, disappeared from the global routing table (Figure 5). It returned after a month but with only half of the address space that it was using.

Graph showing number of routes from AS6712 that appeared on the global routing table from November 2021 to January 2023.
Figure 5 — Routes from AS6712 that appeared on the global routing table from November 2021 to January 2023. Source: RIPE Stat

Other large networks from the same region, such as AS57864 – MEGABIT and AS35714 – Infoservice-UA, also disappeared around the same time but did not return.

Graph showing number of routes from AS57864 that appeared on the global routing table from November 2021 to January 2023.
Figure 6 — Routes from AS57864 that appeared on the global routing table from November 2021 to January 2023. Source: RIPE Stat.
Graph showing number of routes from AS35714 that appeared on the global routing table from November 2021 to January 2023.
Figure 7 — Routes from AS35714 that appeared on the global routing table from November 2021 to January 2023. Source: RIPE Stat.

Impact on Internet Users

Any network or routes disappearing from the global routing table portrays a grave picture because these are not just networks or IP addresses that are no longer in use. There are people behind the scenes operating and maintaining these networks. And there are people using these IP addresses to connect to the Internet for knowledge, information, and news, and to connect with their loved ones. All of these things become so much more important during times of hardship.

We will continue to monitor and report on these changes and subsequent Internet events, and look into the effect they have on Ukraine and the rest of the world.

Subscribe to the Pulse monthly newsletter to stay up to date.

Tags: