August 17, 2026
Yandex, a mapping service popular in Russia, has found a new way to conceal military sites. In particular, fragments of forest appeared on a satellite image of an area near the port of Kronstadt, close to St. Petersburg, where a missile battery is located, the Finnish outlet Yle reported on Aug. 17.
The Russian company Yandex had previously tried to mask military sites, mainly by blurring details on satellite images. Last spring, researchers counted 119 blurred sites in western Russia.
This time, however, an image of a forest was superimposed over the missile battery using photo-editing software. The same battery is still visible on maps from Google, Apple, and Microsoft.
Yle suggested Russia may be trying to hide the target from Ukrainian drone strikes. However, military expert and former Finnish intelligence officer Marko Eklund said such “secrecy” is pointless, since Western or Ukrainian intelligence relies on its own satellite imagery rather than commercial maps.
According to Eklund, the manipulation reflects some administrative decision, and the editing at Kronstadt itself was done sloppily.
According to Yle, the concealed area previously housed Bastion anti-ship missiles along with associated radar and reconnaissance systems.
That’s a good way to hide your junk from those stupid enough to use Yandex for anything. That won’t stop Google Maps or Bing Maps or Apple Maps from exposing them.
Who the hell uses Yandex anyway? It’s the biggest pile of shit ever copied from Google.
That’s right. That substantiates my comment.
That entire country is a lie.