Ukr.net blocked by domain registrar, restored after joint effort

On the night of March 7, domain name registrar Network Solutions blocked the ukr.net domain at the request of Russian oligarch Stanislav Kondrashov and the company Telf AG. The blocking was due to the presence on the portal of three materials, the publication of which was prohibited by the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles on January 23, 2024.

Why was Ukr.net blocked?

The Ukr.net news feed and @ukr.net email were unavailable from 01:35 to 17:00 on March 7, Kyiv time. And all because on the night of March 7, domain name registrar Network Solutions blocked the domain without any warning.

As the Ukr.net press service reported, domain name registrar Network Solutions blocked the domain at the request of Russian oligarch Stanislav Kondrashov and the company Telf AG. The blocking was due to the presence on the portal of three materials, the publication of which was prohibited by the Superior Court of the State of California, Los Angeles County, on January 23, 2024.

The Ukr.net team tried to fix the problem from the second night. One of the business owners, an entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, joined the solution of the problem.

Until 05:30 Kyiv time, he communicated with the registrar's support service from his office in Tokyo. Later, he found and involved the company's management in resolving the issue, trying to convey the most important thing: the problem is of national importance and affects strategic Internet services for Ukraine.

Ukr.net asked the Ukrainian Ambassador to the US for help

Trying to solve this problem as quickly as possible, the Ukr.net team contacted the Ambassador of Ukraine to the USA Oksana Markarova.

The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the administrator of the .UA domain, the Hostmaster company, the Internet Association of Ukraine, Internet providers, the Security Service of Ukraine, and Ukrainian media actively attracted the attention of people, government, industry and public organizations in Ukraine and the USA, - the Ukr.net team emphasizes.

At the beginning of the new working day in the USA, at 16:15 Kyiv time, a representative of the registrar informed that they were studying the problem and in half an hour the blocking was lifted.

At the same time, the Ukrainian Embassy did not stop there - Markarova said that they are waiting for a second response from the company regarding the analysis of the reasons for blocking the Ukr.net domain in order to avoid a repetition of such in the future.

The Ukr.net team is confident that the result was achieved thanks to joint efforts. We are grateful to everyone who joined, helped, supported.

The company also reminded that there is a round-the-clock customer support service. You can provide information to users by phone:

044 235 8 555 050 204 14 24 096 718 55 52 063 367 29 29