Yandex digitally added forest to maps to hide Russian military sites

Yandex has added forest cover to a military installation on its online maps, as reported by Finnish outlet YLE. Satellite images of the area around Kronstadt, where Russian missile batteries are located, show fragments of forest appearing in recent images, whereas foreign mapping services like Google, Apple, and Microsoft still display the batteries from images taken before April 2026.

YLE suggests the missile systems may have been moved, as military expert Marko Eklund states that concealing the site behind copied forest fragments is not practical from an operational standpoint. Ukrainian and Western militaries depend on their own sources of information, rather than Yandex maps, according to Eklund. He also posits that Russian authorities may have requested Yandex to hide certain sites on its maps.

Yandex does not only conceal military facilities, including airfields, but also President Vladimir Putin's residence in Valdai on its maps. Meduza, the news outlet reporting this story, is transparent about its use of artificial intelligence in their newsroom, ensuring timely and accurate English-language coverage through rigorous editorial standards and editor reviews.