Putin’s United Russia party boasted of installing four payphones in occupied Rubizhne

“Thanks to the efforts of the Rubizhne local branch of the United Russia party and the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media in the LPR,” four payphones have been installed in occupied Rubizhne, Telegram channel of the Russian ruling party United Russia reported.

“Anyone in need of an ambulance can call 103 from any payphone,” it was said in the post, which also included four addresses.

As Realna Gazeta noted, before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, more than 50,000 people lived in Rubizhne.

In the comments under the post, residents asked how one could call an ambulance at night when there is a curfew. One of the users wrote that violating the curfew is punishable by a fine of 600 rubles.

Mobile and internet connections in Rubizhne, Siverskodonetsk, Lysychansk, and Kreminna disappeared shortly after the occupation of these cities. Local residents and Ukrainian media explain this by the strategic importance of these cities for the Russians and their fears that disloyal locals will pass sensitive information to the Ukrainian special services and armed forces. Sieverskodonetsk, Lysychansk and Rubizhne form a single agglomeration; near the neighbouring town of Kreminna, fighting is still undergoing.

The installation of payphones in the four cities was first reported in late 2023. They can only be used to contact city emergency services. In once published photos, Realna Gazeta journalists recognised old devices of the Ukrainian Ukrtelecom.

Recently, “minister of digital development, communications and mass media” of the Luhansk “republic’’ Andrey Yershov, visiting Rubizhne, “touched upon the issue of the lack of mobile communication,” the occupation administration of the city reported.

“We have already set up more than 3,500 base stations in the LPR, with a speed of up to 16 Mbps. We are actively working to provide mobile communications in the cities of the Agglomeration, and I am confident that in the near future residents of cities like Rubizhne will be able to fully enjoy all the benefits of mobile communications,” Yershov reportedly said.

The rest of the cities in the occupied part of Luhansk region have never had problems with mobile communications, except for a few days in 2020 when mobile communications were cut off in occupied Antratsyt due to a miners’ strike. At that time, one of the Ukrainian mobile operators was still operating in the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine.