Zelensky says Russia is widening attacks on Ukraine’s data centres

A Russian drone strike hit a Kyiv business centre housing a data centre on Friday, killing four people, Ukrainian officials said, as President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Moscow was widening its attacks on Ukraine’s internet infrastructure. [1]

In a social media statement reported by the BBC, Zelensky said Russia was expanding its attacks to include data centres and internet providers, affecting people’s ability to stay connected, study and work. [1]

The building struck on 25 September was the Inkom business centre, which housed Datagroup. Russia’s defence ministry acknowledged hitting the Datagroup site and alleged that Ukrainian military intelligence used it, the BBC reported. [1]

Datagroup said its specialists were assessing the damage but all services continued operating from backup sites. The company also said its employees were unharmed and customer data had been preserved, according to Ukrainian news outlet hromadske. [1] [6]

Earlier attacks disrupted internet access

The strike followed attacks on Wednesday, 23 September, that disrupted internet services to about 100,000 households in Kyiv and the surrounding region, Ukraine’s digital ministry said, as reported by Reuters. The number of those households still affected on Friday was unclear. [7]

Responding to Wednesday’s attacks, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the data centres targeted at that time as civilian infrastructure, not military targets. He stressed that internet access helped people receive potentially life-saving warnings of incoming missiles and drones. [7]

Other operators have reported damage and disruption. In a statement quoted by NV on Thursday, CityHost said an attack had destroyed some of its equipment at a Kyiv data centre, affecting some services. It was attempting to restore backups on equipment abroad but could not give a restoration time.