The regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are switching to +7, the phone code of Russia, says Oleg Kryuchkov, a pro-Russian official of the occupied Crimea. The occupying authorities of the Zaporizhzhia region told RIA Novosti that they had received a shipment of Russian SIM cards.
It became known yesterday that Russian SIM cards are sold in the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. The cards are blank and sold with no logos, so it is unclear what telephone company provides the service, Interfax says.
Lugakom, a telephone company based in the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, switched to the Russian country code earlier. Russia’s Ministry for Digital Development announced in early May that Donetsk and Luhansk telephone companies would receive the +7 phone code.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree easing Russian citizenship rules for residents of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions on 25 May. The same measures were introduced previously for residents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics.”
Russia only controls the southern part of the Zaporizhzhia region, while Kherson has been under Russian control since 2 March. Russian TV channels are transmitted in the region. The local Internet provider SkyNET switched to Russia’s Rostelecom network earlier.
