Russia keeps attacking Ukrainian data centers, calling it a ‘mandatory digital detox’
Russian forces continue to strike Ukrainian data centers. On September 25, they attacked an office building in Kyiv that houses a Datagroup data center. The center was damaged, but the company said all its services continued to run from backup sites.
On September 26, a Cosmonova data center in another Kyiv office building was hit. It had to shut down, interrupting broadcasts by several television channels. The strikes on data centers also left some Kyiv residents without internet access.
On September 28, a Russian drone struck an office building in Dnipro. The regional administration reported damage and casualties but did not say which companies occupied the building. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko also reported a strike on an office building in the city’s Shevchenkivskyi district overnight on September 28. Later that day, a strike on Kyiv set a National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine building on fire. A Ukrtelecom office and the German Embassy building are nearby.
On September 26, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it was striking data centers because they “process and transmit intelligence data for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.” The next day, the ministry posted an image of a drone on social media with the caption “Digital detox” and the comment “Mandatory!”
Commenting on the data center strikes, Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi said: “All infrastructure is at risk. That was true before, it is true now, and it will remain true until the war ends” (as quoted by RBC-Ukraine). He said the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief had already discussed protecting data centers and keeping mobile communications running.
Koretskyi said the authorities were doing everything they could to keep people connected, from protecting facilities directly to finding “unconventional solutions.” But, he said, in building a system to protect communications infrastructure, “we need to plan for the worst-case scenario and prepare accordingly.”
The war in photographs: Kyiv
Russian forces struck Kyiv throughout the past week. Every day, city authorities and Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported casualties and destruction. These photographs show the aftermath of Russian strikes on Kyiv on the morning of September 28.
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