Yandex has integrated virtual private network (VPN) capabilities into the mobile version of Yandex Browser on Android. This has already allowed Ukrainian users to bypass the recently introduced blocking of Yandex itself, Mail.ru , social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, Kinopoisk and other services, according to messages from Ukrainian users on Twitter and Facebook .

"Yandex Browser has implemented a VPN at the software level," one user writes on Twitter. The update is available to Ukrainian users in the Google Play app store.

"We are doing everything possible to ensure that users have access to Yandex and other sites," the company told Interfax. The company does not disclose the number of browser downloads or the number of company users on Android devices. Earlier, the social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki sent out instructions to Ukrainian users on how to access the services on both a computer and a mobile phone.

Last week, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko enacted the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on sanctions against the social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, as well as the companies Mail.ru, Yandex and their services. Access to all Yandex and Mail.ru services is prohibited for three years. Local Internet providers must block access to the services subject to sanctions in the country.

According to estimates by the research company Factum Group Ukraine, at the end of the first quarter of 2017, the number of Internet users in Ukraine was 21.6 million. At the same time, according to gemiusAudience, Yandex services are used monthly by more than 11 million people in the country, that is, approximately 51% of all users in the country, and VKontakte is visited monthly by 16 million people (74% of Internet users in Ukraine).

Yandex has built the ability to bypass blocking in Ukraine into a mobile browser – Interfax