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Russian President Vladimir Putin directly responded to complaints about Russia’s mobile internet outages by justifying the outages as necessary for Russian domestic security and setting conditions to prepare Russians for continued restrictions. Putin held an unrelated meeting with the Russian government on April 23 but began the meeting by hearing a report on current issues, including mobile internet restrictions. Putin noted that Russians in large urban centers and in areas bordering Ukraine are struggling with government restrictions on mobile internet during “terrorist attacks” — the Kremlin’s shorthand for Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign against Russian military, defense industrial, and oil infrastructure. Putin asserted that Russia must prioritize the protection of its people, particularly civilians, as a means of justifying the outages. Putin claimed that there are security risks in informing Russians about outages ahead of time but did call for the Russian government to be more transparent about the purpose of the outages after-the-fact. Russian authorities have long been using the pretext of Ukrainian drone and missile strikes against legitimate targets on Russian territory to shut off mobile internet service, which has impacted the everyday lives of Russians by depriving them the ability to utilize basic services including banking and transportation. Putin did partially acquiesce on April 23 to Russians impacted by these outages, however, ordering the Russian government to whitelist certain services even during mobile internet outages and to establish physical communications lines to border areas. This is the first instance that Putin himself has publicly acknowledged the mobile internet outages; Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was previously the most senior Russian official to acknowledge these outages in mid-March 2026. Putin’s acknowledgement of the impact of these outages on the everyday lives of Russians, who are already increasingly bearing the burden of Putin’s war in Ukraine, is likely both a response to his dropping approval ratings and a way to justify continued restrictions on mobile internet amid the Kremlin’s broader censorship campaign.
The Kremlin continues to set conditions for possible future aggression against Baltic states. The Russian Security Council accused Lithuanian authorities on April 23 of creating a “hotbed of tension” near the border with Kaliningrad Oblast and militarizing the country under the guise of a “Russian threat.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko claimed to Russian state news outlet RIA Novosti on April 23 that NATO’s Joint Expeditionary Force exercises are practicing scenarios for a naval blockade and the seizure of Kaliningrad Oblast and accused NATO of purposefully “intensifying confrontation” with Russia. These statements are part of the Kremlin’s ongoing cognitive warfare narrative aimed at falsely framing NATO as an aggressor in response to the Kremlin’s military aggression in Ukraine and long-term posturing. The Kremlin has been advancing several information operations targeting the Baltic states in order to set long-term informational conditions to justify potential future military action against the Baltics. The Kremlin has been using its control of Kaliningrad Oblast in particular to set justifications for future Russian aggression against the Baltic States or Poland under the guise of defending Kaliningrad Oblast.
Russian forces struck an apartment building in Dnipro City, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast overnight on April 22 to 23, killing at least three civilians and injuring at least 10. Ukrainian authorities reported on April 23 and geolocated footage confirms that Russian forces struck an apartment building in Dnipro City and geolocated footage shows severe damage to a high rise building in Dnipro City. Russia’s long-range strike tactics disproportionately affect civilian areas, and ISW continues to assess that Russia is deliberately modifying its strike tactics and vehicles to augment this effect.
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