TheInternet in Ukraine is well developed and steadily growing.
In April 2012 rapid growth was forecast for at least two more years.[1] As of 2011[update], Ukraine was ranked 9th in the "Top 10 Internet countries in Europe", with then 33.9%Internet penetration and 15.3 million users; growing to 36.8% in 2012.[2] However, as of January 2021[update] about 30 million Ukrainians (85% of the country's population older than 15) were Internet users.[3]
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 AnOpte Project visualization ofrouting paths through a portion of the Internet |
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In 2011,online retailing turnover in Ukraine exceeded US$2 bn. For 2012, it was expected to reach US$4 bn.Online payments in the country in 2011 where estimated at US$400 million, 200% growth compared to 2010.[4]
As of September 2020[update], Ukraine ranked 59th among the world's countries by thefixed broadbandInternet accessspeed, with an average download speed of 59.13mbit/s, and 80th by themobile network Internet access speed with 25.63mbit/s.[5]
Freedom House concluded that the Internet in Ukraine is "Partly Free" in 2019 and 2020.[6][7]
AResearch & Branding Group February 2021 poll found that for the first time Ukrainians preferred the Internet as their primary news source instead oftelevision (51% preferred the Internet and 41% TV).[8]
During theRussian invasion of Ukraine, Internetwas partly provided by the Starlink satellite service.[9][10]
According to GlobalLogic, 85% of Ukraine's population older than 15 have had access to Internet in January 2021.[11]
Data from database: World Development Indicators Last Updated: 10/14/2016 indicates the data below[12]
| Year | Population | Penetration | Internet Users | Change from previous year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 49,175,848 | 0.72% | 352,189 | |
| 2001 | 48,683,865 | 1.24% | 603,076 | 71.2% |
| 2002 | 48,202,500 | 1.87% | 903,259 | 49.8% |
| 2003 | 47,812,950 | 3.15% | 1,505,213 | 66.6% |
| 2004 | 47,451,600 | 3.49% | 1,655,813 | 10.0% |
| 2005 | 47,105,150 | 3.75% | 1,766,332 | 6.7% |
| 2006 | 46,787,750 | 4.51% | 2,108,314 | 19.4% |
| 2007 | 46,509,350 | 6.55% | 3,046,362 | 44.5% |
| 2008 | 46,258,200 | 11.00% | 5,088,402 | 67.0% |
| 2009 | 46,053,300 | 17.90% | 8,243,541 | 62.0% |
| 2010 | 45,870,700 | 23.30% | 10,687,873 | 29.7% |
| 2011 | 45,706,100 | 28.71% | 13,121,427 | 22.8% |
| 2012 | 45,593,300 | 35.27% | 16,080,757 | 22.6% |
| 2013 | 45,489,600 | 40.95% | 18,629,869 | 15.9% |
| 2014 | 45,362,900 | 46.24% | 20,973,979 | 12.6% |
| 2015 | 45,198,200 | 49.26% | 22,264,633 | 6.2% |
| 2016 | 44,194,413 | 52.5% | 23,202,067 | 4.2% |
In 2011, the number of subscribers toInternet service providers[13] in Ukraine had increased compared to 2010 by 13.3% to 4,148,658.[14] After the 3rd quarter of 2012, the number of broadband subscribers alone exceeded that figure, grown to 6,700,000.[15] 2011 revenues from Internet service providing in Ukraine reached ₴4.75 billion (US$595 million).[14] It is unclear whether these numbers includemobile Internet services which are provided by all of Ukraine'smobile phone operators.
All existing standards of Internet access are available in Ukraine, withbroadband services mostly limited to cities.
Mobile GPRS access is available in vast majority of Ukraine's territory, including allurban areas and airports, most roads and railway lines, many coastal waters.3G mobile access market is steadily developing.Public Wi-Fi hotspots are widespread throughout cities. There are plans and projects for providing masswireless broadband access in urban open spaces, onUkrzaliznytsia long-distance trains and in urbanpublic transport vehicles. According to Ericsson ConsumerLab, 36% of Ukraine's urban population access the Internet via mobile phone orsmartphone.[16]
According to the iKS-Consulting, there were 6 700 000 broadband subscribers in Ukraine as of 3Q 2012; 5.97 million of them were households, which amounts to 34%broadband Internet penetration of all country's households. The consultancy estimated broadband providing revenues in the 3rd quarter of 2012 at ₴1.36 billion (US$167 million), which is the growth 13.7% compared to 3Q 2011 results.[17]
Thousands of national, regional and local ISP operate in Ukraine, with as much 14 ISPs competing for every household client in the capital cityKyiv.[18]
According to Expert & Consulting (E&C), the top-10 Ukrainian fixed Broadband Internet service providers had about 3.36 million subscribers as of the 2nd quarter of 2012; as of the 3rd quarter, that figure rose to about 3,46 million subscribers.[19][20] According to estimations of Expert & Consulting (E&C), there were 7,06 mln. subscribers of fixed Broadband Internet at the end of 1st half of 2013.[21]
Ukrtelecom is the largest Internet access provider (as well asfixed telephone provider) and was the onlyUMTS3G provider in Ukraine until 2015, when all three major operators (Vodafone, Kyivstar and Lifecell) have gained the licensing and set up their own 3G networks. In particular, it was serving over 1.4 millionDSL/ISDN fixed access clients in June 2012.[22] The second-largest providerVolia is a major player specializing incable access combined with TV signal. BothMTS[23] andKyivstar[24] (Ukraine's largestmobile phone operators) also offer fixed broadband access along with their mobile Internet services.
There were 1,686,500Facebook users in Ukraine in 2011 and over 3,000,000 in October 2013.[25] According to the Internet Association of Ukraine 13 million Ukrainians used Facebook in 2019.[26] In 2018, this number had increased by 3 million or 30%, and in the previous five years by 9.8 million or 306.2%.[26] The Internet Association of Ukraine claimed in November 2019 that Facebook was the most popular social network of Ukraine.[26]
According to theGoogle Analytics, in 2012 the number of dailyTwitter visitors from Ukraine reaches 120,000 while the "Yandex.Ukraine" estimated the number of Ukrainian users at 500,000, andGfK Ukraine, a market research company, found that a quarter of Ukrainian Twitter users ignore their accounts completely, while 28 percent check them only occasionally.[27]Ukrainian politicianYulia Tymoshenko was the mostfollowed Twitter user in Ukraine as of early 2012, with 91,547followers.[27]
AResearch & Branding Group February 2021 poll found 6% of Ukrainians used Twitter.[8]
According to research byPlusOne Communications Group in March 2019 Ukraine had 11 millionInstagram users.[28] Ukrainians under the age of 30 used Instagram more than Facebook.[28] According to the Internet Association of Ukraine 3.8 million people used the network in 2017, in 2018 this had been 7.3 million people.[26]
AResearch & Branding Group February 2021 poll found 17% of Ukrainians usedTelegram.[8] According to the pollster the number of its users in Ukraine had tripled since 2018.[8]
According toAlexa Internet ranking, in 2013VK was the most visited website in Ukraine.[29] According to the company, in January 2012 VK had more than 20 million registered users from Ukraine (out of a total of 155 million users worldwide); 6.6 million of them visited the site daily.[30] As of February 2013[update], VK's mean daily audience in Ukraine grew to 9.35 million (according to LiveInternet), which amounted to 20.2% of the network's mean daily global traffic.[31]
On 16 May 2017,President Poroshenko signed a decree requiring providers to block access to VK, as it was claimed they participated in an information war against Ukraine.[32]
According to the Internet Association of Ukraine the share of Ukrainian Internet users who visit VK daily had fallen from 54% to 10% from September 2016 to September 2019.[26] For 2019 VK appeared as the most visited social network in Ukraine according toAlexa.[33] The Internet Association of Ukraine claimed in November 2019 that Facebook was the most popular social network of Ukraine.[26] AResearch & Branding Group February 2021 poll found 5% of Ukrainians continued to use VK.[8]
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According to the 2013 TEMAX index by theGfK, Ukraine's onlinehouse appliances andconsumer electronics market is the second fastest-growing inEurope (after theTurkish), with estimated 2012 size of₴5,000,000,000. There were estimated 5,000–7,000online shops in operation across the country, with about 1,300 of them working in the house appliances andconsumer electronics sector.[34]
E-ticketing is rapidly growing in Ukraine, being recently boosted by theUkrzaliznytsia nationalrailway operator's implementation of its ownonline booking system, available inUkrainian andEnglish.[35] Tickets for all regularairline flights and vast majority of the intercitybus services[36] are also available for booking or purchase through independent online service providers.
The vast majority of Ukraine'sbanks offeronline banking (usually free of charge). Payments for vast and growing number of services are accepted online (both through theATM card payments systems and the independentelectronic money facilitators); all possible payments from a person are typically accepted online in big cities.[citation needed]
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In December 2010 theOpenNet Initiative found little evidence of Internet filtering in Ukraine in all four areas (political, social, conflict/security, and Internet tools) they tested.[37]
In itsFreedom on the Net report covering the period from May 2012 to April 2013,Freedom House found the internet in Ukraine to be "largely unhindered" and rated the internet in Ukraine as "Free" with an overall score of 28, on a scale from 0 (most free) to 100 (least free). The report said that "there is no practice of institutionalized blocking or filtering, or a regulatory framework for censorship of content online", but "there have been attempts at creating legislation which could censor or limit content" and would "present indirect threats to freedom of information online."[38]
Access to the internet in Ukraine remains largely unfettered. Ukraine possesses relatively liberal legislation governing the Internet and access to information. The Law on Protection of Public Morals of 20 November 2003, prohibits the production and circulation of pornography; dissemination of products that propagandize war or spread national and religious intolerance; humiliation or insult to an individual or nation on the grounds of nationality, religion, or ignorance; and the propagation of "drug addiction, toxicology, alcoholism, smoking and other bad habits."[37]
While there are no government restrictions on internet access, law enforcement bodies are known to using online monitoring, at times without permission. Bloggers and online publications have accused law enforcement agencies of interference.[39]
The law provides forfreedom of speech andpress. However, the Ukrainian government does not always respect these rights in practice. Individuals can criticize the government.[citation needed]Libel is considered a civil offence, and the law limits the level of damages that may be claimed in libel lawsuits. The press is free to criticize express opinions, and public officials have fewer legal protections from criticism than other citizens. However, local media observers have expressed concern over high monetary damages demanded and awarded for alleged libel. The constitution prohibits arbitrary interference of privacy, family, home, or correspondence, but authorities generally do not respect these prohibitions.[39] For example:
A report from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) found around 300 instances of violent attacks on the media in Ukraine from November 2013 to May 2014.[40]
In 2014, amid increasing tensions with Russia, the Ukrainian government became more intolerant of the press. Under the impact of war and social polarization, the democratic credentials of the pro-European Kyiv government have been slipping as well. A crackdown on what authorities describe as “pro-separatist” points of view has triggered dismay among Western human rights monitors. For example, the September 11, 2014 shutdown of the independent Kyiv-based Vesti newspaper by the Ukrainian Security Service for “violating Ukraine's territorial integrity” brought condemnation from the international Committee to Protect Journalists and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.[41]
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) broke into the office of a Kyiv-based digital newspaper “Vesti”, physically trapping reporters and ultimately shutting down the website.
Vesti News's editor-in-chief Igor Guzhva wrote on his Facebook page that the news outlet had been raided by SBU. The SBU reportedly took all servers, kept staffers in a "hot corridor" and shut down the website completely. Guzhva said that the purpose of the raid was "to block our work.". “Journalists are not being let into their office," Guzhva wrote. "Those who were already inside at the moment of the raid are being kept in the building and are not allowed to use cell phones.”
Guzhva said that this is the second time in just six months that the SBU has tried to "intimidate" its editors. He added that he is unsure of the reason for the raid, but suspects that it might have to do with a story the website published about the SBU chief's daughter.[42]
On 16 May 2017,President Poroshenko signed a decree requiring providers to block access to a number of Russian websites, including four of the most popular websites in Ukraine:VKontakte,Odnoklassniki,Yandex andMail.Ru. The president claimed they participated in an information war against Ukraine. Respondents in an online poll on the UNIAN site declared that 66% were “categorically against” the ban of Russian sites and another 11% said it would be easier to “ban the whole internet, like in North Korea”.[32] The move was widely criticised as censorship, andReporters Without Borders condemned the ban, calling it a "disproportionate measure that seriously undermines the Ukrainian people's right to information and freedom of expression."[43]
Ukraine's military and government rapidly became dependent onSpaceX'sStarlink satellite services duringRussian's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as Russia attacked key infrastructures including telecommunication ones, and Ukraine was experiencing significant problems with Internet access.[44][45][46]
While military and government use of the Starlink has been the most important aspect of opening Ukraine to low-altitude satellite internet services in early 2022, civilians are also heavily using the technology "to keep in touch with the outside world and tell loved ones that they are alive." During the war, Ukrainians can use Starlink terminals without paying the usual monthly subscription fee.[47]
To pay for the cost of Starlink in Ukraine, SpaceX donated for an estimate of over $100 million,[48] while an unknown amount was secured by several European countries and the US government.[49][50] In June 2023,The Pentagon communicated that theDepartment of Defense signed a contract with SpaceX's Starlink to buy those satellite services for Ukraine.[51]
The use of Starlink inRussian-occupied territories in Ukraine was however restricted by SpaceX, according to Ukrainian officials.[52]
Public Internet access networks in occupied areas including Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea have been taken over by Russian-backed providers including the Crimea-basedMiranda Media.[53][54] Access in the occupied territories is subject to Russian media restrictions and monitoring.[55]
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