What happened to Telegram
Russia’s telecom watchdog, Roskomnadzor, restricted Telegram calls back in August 2025. On February 10, 2026 it confirmed it was slowing down the messenger itself, and by spring plenty of people couldn’t open it without a VPN.
The throttling is done by your provider, and to throttle Telegram it first has to recognize it in the traffic. Through a VPN all it sees is an encrypted stream, and Telegram can’t be picked out of it. The messenger, for its part, sees you in whichever country the app is set to.
How to connect
VanyaVPN has to be on the same device as Telegram. All the ways to install it on iPhone and Android are gathered on one page, while Windows and Mac have pages of their own. Then choose any foreign country under Location and connect.
If you once set up a proxy in Telegram’s settings and it no longer works, turn it off. With VanyaVPN running, you don’t need it.
VPN for Telegram with a trial
Three days is enough to see whether Telegram works for you, photos, videos, calls and all. After that it becomes a regular monthly subscription, and you can turn off renewal in your account.
- Vanechka trial
- $0.50 for 3 days
- Monthly plan
- $5 a month
- 2-year plan
- $1.90 a month
If you plan to stay, the 2-year plan works out cheapest per month. Everything else about the trial is on its own page.
Questions about Telegram
Will calls work through the VPN?
Calls are more demanding than messages and usually go over UDP, which is closed on some routes. When that happens, messages arrive but the call never connects. Switch to another country, or open Settings and tap Find working server.
Does the person on the other end need a VPN too?
If they’re in Russia, yes. The restrictions hit their side as well. Without one, your messages and photos reach them only when their app manages to download them.
Why do my Telegram sessions show a different country?
The app determines where you signed in from by your IP, and with a VPN that’s the server’s address in the country you chose. It has no effect on anything else.
Discord voice channels suffer from closed UDP too, see VPN for Discord. Video has its own page, VPN for YouTube.