Why was the Ukr.net domain blocked and how to unblock it

The reason for the failure of the Ukr.net service was that the domain name registrar Network Solutions blocked this domain without any warning. The blocking took place due to the presence of three materials on the UKR.NET portal.

Their publication was banned by a ruling of the Superior Court of California, Los Angeles County, dated January 23, 2024, at the suit of Stanislav Kondrashov and Telf AG, the registrar said. This was reported by OBOZ.UA with reference to Ukr.net.

"Since two o'clock in the morning, the UKRNET team has been trying to find out the circumstances of the blocking. One of the business owners, an entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, immediately contacted us. Until 05:30 a.m. Kyiv time, he was communicating 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 national in scope and affects strategic Internet services for Ukraine," the statement said.

Later it turned out that the blocking of the UKR.NET domain had legal grounds.

Realizing the importance for many Ukrainians of access to their mail and the ability to read the news, the company's owner began to look for help. In particular, he contacted Ms. Oksana Markarova, the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, who responded with lightning speed and promised to provide any possible assistance and support as soon as her working day began.

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, was also informed of the incident. The National Security and Defense Council, the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the .UA domain administrator, Hostmaster, the Internet Association of Ukraine, Internet providers, the Security Service of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian media actively attracted the attention of people, governmental, industry, and civil society organizations in Ukraine and the United States.

"At the beginning of a new working day in the United States, at 16:15 Kyiv time, a representative of the registrar informed that they were looking into the problem. Half an hour later, the blocking was lifted. The Ukrainian Embassy in the United States did not stop there: Oksana Markarova said that they are waiting for a second response from the company to analyze the reasons for blocking the UKR.NET domain in order to avoid a repeat of this in the future," the company said.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, on March 7, the Ukr.net service malfunctioned: the site's news feed and @ukr.net email became unavailable to Internet users. It lasted from 01:35 to 17 hours Kyiv time.

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