Cloudflare WARP (1.1.1.1) not working in Russia: why, what still helps and what to use instead

Cloudflare WARP, the "VPN inside the 1.1.1.1 app", was for years the most popular free way to get around YouTube throttling in Russia: install, press the button, done. In 2026 it works every other day, and on some carriers not at all. That's not a fault on your side and not a Cloudflare outage: WARP traffic in Russia is detected and cut. Here's what exactly is happening, which settings still help and what to move to.

Quick fix. WARP runs over WireGuard, and Russian carriers cut that protocol by signature. Surok runs on VLESS with Reality: to the carrier it's ordinary HTTPS, indistinguishable from browsing a website. Three days free, then from $2.99 a month, including on mobile data.

What WARP is and why it isn't quite a VPN

The 1.1.1.1 app has two modes. The first, "1.1.1.1", only switches DNS to Cloudflare's servers: sites still open from your own address, and it doesn't bypass IP blocks. The second, "1.1.1.1 with WARP", brings up a tunnel to the nearest Cloudflare node over WireGuard (newer versions also offer MASQUE over HTTP/3). All traffic goes into Cloudflare, and sites see a Cloudflare address instead of yours.

An important caveat: WARP doesn't change your country. Cloudflare sends you out through the nearest node and tags the address with your region, so services closed to Russia by country (Gemini, Claude, Spotify, Tinder) still won't work through WARP. It only ever helped with blocks on the Russian carriers' side, and that's exactly the ability it lost.

How Roskomnadzor cut WARP: a timeline

• December 2021. Roskomnadzor announced blocks on six VPN services, Cloudflare WARP among them. That block barely worked; WARP kept connecting.
• Summer 2022. The first real cut-off: the tunnel stopped coming up on most carriers, and workaround settings appeared a few weeks later.
• 2023–2024. Carriers' TSPU filtering equipment started cutting WireGuard wholesale, by handshake signature. WARP, as one of the biggest WireGuard consumers, was hit first. The details are in WireGuard not working.
• 21 February 2025. Cloudflare was forcibly added to the registry of "information distribution organisers", and Roskomnadzor advised site owners to disable ECH, the TLS extension that hides the site name. Cloudflare subnets began to be blocked in chunks.
• August 2026. On Rostelecom, Dom.ru, Tattelecom and several regional providers, encrypted DNS from Cloudflare and Google (DoH and DoT to 1.1.1.1 and dns.google) stopped working. Roskomnadzor denied any restrictions, but complaints came in from across the country.

There is no official document saying "WARP is blocked as of such-and-such date". That's standard practice: the protocol is cut on carriers' TSPU equipment, and nothing appears in the registry. Which is why WARP may connect on one carrier and not on the one next door.

What the problem looks like

• The app shows "Connecting" forever and never reaches "Connected".
• It connects, the VPN key icon is on, but sites don't open or load on the fifth try.
• A "Your device failed verification" or "Service unavailable" message on Windows.
• Doesn't work on mobile data but works on home Wi-Fi (or the other way round).
• Everything drops a minute after connecting.

If the symptoms match, your phone isn't at fault. Reinstalling the app, clearing the cache and changing DNS won't change anything.

What you can still try inside WARP

These settings don't help everyone and don't help forever, but they're worth checking.

1. Switch the protocol to MASQUE. In the 1.1.1.1 app: Settings → Advanced → Connection options → Protocol. MASQUE disguises itself as HTTP/3 and lasts longer than WireGuard, but on carriers that cut UDP to unfamiliar addresses it falls over too.
2. DNS-only mode for sites blocked by DNS spoofing. If what you need isn't YouTube but a site your provider "can't resolve", the 1.1.1.1 mode without WARP is enough. But DoH to 1.1.1.1 is also cut on some carriers; then only DNS routed through a full VPN tunnel will help.
3. Changing the entry point. Enthusiasts hunt for Cloudflare node addresses and ports that haven't been filtered yet and feed them into a WireGuard or AmneziaWG config with obfuscation. It works for weeks, not months, and needs manual fiddling on every device.

If you want a VPN that just works without weekly tweaking, there's no point reading further about WARP.

What to replace WARP with in 2026

You need a protocol that doesn't look like a VPN. There are two families right now: VLESS with Reality, and connections via a CDN (XHTTP, WebSocket over TLS). To the carrier it's ordinary HTTPS traffic to an ordinary site: it can't be cut by signature, and cutting it by address isn't worth it. How that works in plain words: VLESS, Reality and XHTTP.

Surok is built exactly that way: an entry point in Russia, exits in Germany, Poland, Estonia, Spain, Switzerland, the US and Canada, apps for Android, Windows and Mac, Happ on iPhone, plus extensions for Chrome, Yandex Browser and Firefox with no sign-up. Unlike WARP, it changes your country, so services closed to Russia open too. Three days free, then from $2.99 a month with a card from any country.

If you insist on a free option, an honest review of what's left is in free VPN in Russia. In short: nothing reliable remains on the old protocols.

FAQ

Is WARP officially blocked in Russia? There are no official documents. WireGuard, the protocol it runs on, has been cut on carrier equipment since 2024, so on some providers WARP never connects.

Why does WARP work on Wi-Fi but not on mobile? Mobile carriers filter harder, and during whitelists they let nothing through except approved sites. More in internet whitelists.

Does WARP help with YouTube in 2026? Where it connects, yes. But since February 2026 YouTube doesn't open at all without a bypass, and keeping a tool that itself connects every other day for that is awkward: is YouTube banned in Russia.

Is WARP dangerous to use? No, it's a Cloudflare product with an open protocol, and there are no fines for using a VPN in Russia: is VPN banned in Russia.

Can I build my own WARP with wgcf and AmneziaWG? You can; it's a working method for people willing to deal with configs. It isn't suitable for your parents' phone.

In short

WARP stopped being reliable not because of wrong settings but because WireGuard and Cloudflare subnets are cut in Russia. Try MASQUE in the app settings; if that doesn't help, install a VPN on VLESS with Reality. Surok works on mobile data, changes your country and gives three days free.