Kyiv: The Ukraine’s national telecommunications provider Ukrtelecom has been knocked almost completely offline, suffering what network monitors called its most severe outage since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion.

Government officials in Kyiv say they are investigating whether a cyberattack is to blame.

The outage began Monday morning and persisted into the evening. Alp Toker, director of the London-based monitor Netblocks, said connectivity for Ukrtelecom has collapsed to just 13 percent of pre-war levels.

Ukrtelecom is the seventh-largest provider in Ukraine in traffic moved but, as the pre-independence incumbent, is likely the lone provider in much of rural Ukraine, said Doug Madory, director of internet analysis at the network management firm Kentik.

Urktelecom provides telephone, internet and mobile service.

Despite repeated and withering Russian attacks on its telecommunications and other infrastructure, Ukraine’s digital communications networks have proven remarkably resilient, in part due to risks crews have taken under fire to repair damaged fiber optic cables and toppled cell towers. (AP)

Press Trust of India