Yandex uses new masking techniques to hide Russian military sites

The Russian mapping service Yandex has implemented new techniques to obscure sensitive military sites on its satellite imagery. Rather than using traditional blurring methods, the service is now overlaying fragments of forest imagery to hide strategic locations, such as a missile battery near the naval base of Kronstadt near Saint Petersburg.

While these manipulations aim to create an illusion of a natural landscape, the military utility of this tactic is questioned by experts. Marko Eklund, a former Finnish military intelligence officer, noted that the efforts appear “absurd” from an operational standpoint because Western and Ukrainian intelligence services rely on their own independent satellite data rather than Yandex imagery.

These changes likely stem from Russian administrative regulations designed to restrict the visibility of strategic assets, such as oil refineries and presidential residences, to protect them from potential Ukrainian drone strikes. However, the masking remains detectable to observant users, and the same military installations remain clearly visible on Western platforms like Google, Apple, and Microsoft maps.