St Petersburg internet outage: 5.6 million people cut off from internet in Russia

St Petersburg, Russia, has been cut off from the internet after a major outage, according to user reports. Residents have reported that banks, messaging services, delivery apps, websites and taxis are all unavailable.

Only government services are reported to be still functioning, while all other internet access is down. 130,000 people have reported problems with their internet connection in the region according to Detector 404 data.

It comes as regional authorities announced on today (Tuesday, November 11) that mobile internet access will be restricted in parts of the central Ulyanovsk region - which St Petersburg is not part of - for the duration of the Russia-Ukraine War. This is the first permanent internet black out in the country, the Moscow Times reported.

It is not clear whether the outage in St Petersburg and the blackout in Ulyanovsk region are related. St Petersburg sits over 700 miles away to the north west of the region.

The Kremlin has not publicly commented on the permanent Ulyanovsk region mobile internet blackout. The internet restrictions do cover some residential areas, offices and public buildings, but the exact borders of the blackout have not been confirmed.

"The decision was made to expand security zones around certain sites. The restrictions are permanent until federal authorities decide otherwise," the Ulyanovsk region's Minister of Digital Development Oleg Yagfarov told reporters. Local officials report they do not have the authority to lift the blackout or to require mobile operators to refund customers for the outage, the Moscow Times said.

Ukrainian drones have just hit Orsknefteorgsintez oil refinery in the Orenburg region today, RBC Ukraine reported, 300 miles to the south east of Ulyanovsk region, 900 miles from Ukraine.

Residents in the Ulyanovsk region have reported that even services on the so called "white list" of governement approved platofrms were not working. The services include Gosuslugi, Russian tech platform Yandex, social networks Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki, online marketplaces Ozon and Wildberries, as well as the Mir payment system, the Moscow Time said.

Regional authorities said they are working to restore services like banking appsm school systems and websites for pharmacies expect Russia's Ministry of Digital Development to launch the white list "any day now". In the meantime Ulyanovsk residents are advised to use wired connections.

This is a breaking news story...