In Ukraine War, Keeping Phones Online Becomes Key Defense

As Russian artillery fire rained on Mariupol, the largest mobile-network operator in Ukraine said repair crews worked to keep its last working cellular tower in the city from going offline for a few extra days.

“Our team was regularly repairing that base station to give people who were staying there some chance to call their families,” said Volodymyr Lutchenko, Kyivstar’s chief technology officer. The service kept operating on backup generators for days until a direct hit silenced the tower in early March.