Russian drones hit Ukrainian data centers

Russian jet-powered drone strikes on Ukrainian data centers have surged, disrupting mobile phone and internet services for thousands of people across the country.

Strikes focused on Kyiv since September

According to the nonprofit Reporters Without Borders, Russian attacks on Ukrainian telecommunication infrastructure have focused on Ukraine's capital of Kyiv since September twenty-third.

One hundred thousand households lost internet

Ukraine's digital transformation ministry reported that one hundred thousand households in the Kyiv region were temporarily experiencing internet outages from the initial strikes.

Faster jet-powered drones harder to stop

Ukrainian air defenses intercept more than eighty-five percent of conventional Shahed-type drones, but interception rates fall to just fifty or sixty percent against newer jet-powered Shahed drones.

Russia aims to make life unbearable

Russia's targeting of data centers is part of a broader strike campaign that aims to make civilian life in Ukraine unbearable such that Ukraine will capitulate to Russia's demands.

Ukraine moving data centers and building underground networks

Ukraine has already moved some data centers outside the country and invested in building more underground telecommunication networks to boost resiliency against Russian strikes.

“you cannot move everything underground”

Civilians turning to satellite internet

Telecommunication outages could force more local media outlets and ordinary civilians to turn to satellite-based solutions like Starlink, according to former Ukrainian government advisor Serhii Sternenko.

Strikes called war crimes by press freedom group

Reporters Without Borders called the repeated Russian strikes on Ukraine's telecommunications infrastructure war crimes, saying they violate the Ukrainian population's right to information.

“These are war crimes and their gravity is undeniable.”