Yandex has digitally added forest cover over a military installation on its online maps, the Finnish outlet YLE reported. Copied fragments of forest appear in a satellite image of the area around Kronstadt, where Russian missile batteries are stationed.
YLE said this marks a new method Yandex uses to conceal military sites. Previously, it simply blurred the images.
Foreign mapping services from Google, Apple, and Microsoft show the missile batteries near Kronstadt in images taken before April 2026, but the batteries are absent from more recent images. YLE suggested the mobile missile systems had been moved for some reason.
Military expert Marko Eklund told the Finnish outlet that, “from an operational standpoint,” attempting to hide the site behind copied forest fragments makes no sense. Ukrainian and Western militaries rely on their own sources of information rather than Yandex maps, he said.
Eklund also said Russian authorities could be the ones requiring Yandex to hide certain sites on its maps. Yandex had not responded to YLE’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Yandex hides not only military facilities on its maps, including airfields, but also, for example, Vladimir Putin’s residence in Valdai.
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