Russia has escalated its campaign against Ukraine by targeting critical digital infrastructure in and around the capital. Coordinated strikes on Wednesday and Thursday damaged multiple datacentres and internet service providers, resulting in temporary internet disruptions for roughly 100,000 households in Kyiv and surrounding regions, according to Ukraine’s digital transformation ministry.
On Friday, a drone strike hit the headquarters of Datagroup, one of Ukraine’s largest telecommunications companies, killing four people. The same day, Polish authorities reported that a Starlink satellite station in central Poland that provides coverage to Ukraine had been set on fire in what officials described as sabotage linked to Moscow. Ukraine’s foreign minister characterised the operations as part of a Russian strategy to disrupt information flows and weaken the country’s digital economy.
While Russia has previously targeted Ukrainian datacentres, the scale and coordination of this campaign represent a new phase of attacks on the country’s internet backbone. Ukraine’s relatively decentralised network structure has historically made it difficult for individual strikes to cause widespread outages across entire regions. However, officials and industry representatives have expressed concern that sustained Russian attacks approaching the winter months could begin to compromise networks that support essential services including banking, payment systems and government operations.
These digital infrastructure attacks are part of a broader Russian strategy targeting Ukraine’s economy. Recent strikes have damaged commercial warehouses, petrol stations, ports and industrial facilities. The cumulative effect of this campaign has been severe, with Ukraine failing to produce any steel for the first time in a century, according to industry officials. Ukraine’s military capabilities remain constrained by shortages of air defence systems, though President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the United States has approved licences allowing domestic Patriot missile production, though experts indicate such manufacturing could require years to establish.
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