{"id":783070,"date":"2026-09-26T09:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T09:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/783070\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T09:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T09:14:13","slug":"russia-strikes-at-heart-of-ukraines-digital-economy-with-attacks-on-isps-and-datacentres-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/783070\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia strikes at heart of Ukraine\u2019s digital economy with attacks on ISPs and datacentres | Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia has opened a new front in its campaign against Ukraine<\/a>, hitting several datacentres and internet providers in Kyiv this week in an apparent attempt to weaken the digital backbone of the economy.<\/p>\n

About 100,000 households in Kyiv and the surrounding region suffered temporary internet outages after strikes on Wednesday and Thursday, according to Ukraine\u2019s digital transformation ministry.<\/p>\n

On Friday, another drone strike in central Kyiv hit the offices of Datagroup, one of Ukraine\u2019s largest telecommunications companies, killing four people.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia has targeted major Ukrainian datacentres, seeking to disrupt the flow of information,\u201d Ukraine\u2019s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, wrote on X.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Polish authorities reported a Starlink satellite station in central Poland serving Ukraine had been set on fire<\/a>, in what appeared to be part of a coordinated attack on Ukraine\u2019s internet infrastructure. Local officials described it as an \u201cact of sabotage\u201d linked to Moscow.<\/p>\n

Russia has previously targeted Ukraine\u2019s datacentres, but attacks on this scale are new.<\/p>\n

Keeping the country connected has been a priority for the Ukrainian government throughout the war, with authorities looking for ways to ensure mobile and internet providers have enough backup power to keep operating during prolonged electricity outages.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s relatively decentralised internet network also makes it harder for individual strikes to cause widespread or prolonged outages across whole cities or regions.<\/p>\n

But with winter approaching, officials and industry figures fear repeated Russian attacks could begin to disrupt the networks that keep Ukraine\u2019s banks, payment systems and public services running.<\/p>\n

\u201cI recommend Kyiv residents gradually prepare for winter \u2026 by getting Starlink terminals or other means of maintaining communications,\u201d Serhii Sternenko, a popular blogger and former government adviser, wrote on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of the Russians is not only to strike at the capital\u2019s energy infrastructure but also to destroy all datacentres and internet operators,\u201d Sternenko added.<\/p>\n

The attacks come amid Russia\u2019s intensified strikes on Ukraine\u2019s economy<\/a>, with missiles and new jet-powered drones<\/a> used against warehouses, petrol stations, ports and other commercial infrastructure, adding further pressure to an economy already strained by nearly five years of full-scale war.<\/p>\n

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On Friday, Russia struck a warehouse used by the McDonald\u2019s chain. Photograph: Sergiy Chalyi\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Among the targets on Friday was a warehouse used by the McDonald\u2019s fast food restaurant chain outside Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Heavy industry has also been hit hard, with Russian strikes disrupting industrial facilities and steel production. This month, Ukraine failed to produce a single tonne of steel for the first time in a century, according to a senior industry official.<\/p>\n

Ukraine is struggling to counter a growing wave of new high-speed Russian jet-powered drones, including the Geran-5, while also running critically low on Patriot missiles needed to defend against Russian ballistic and cruise missile attacks.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters on Friday, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Donald Trump had approved granting Ukraine licences to produce Patriot air defence missiles, potentially giving Kyiv a path to manufacture the crucial systems domestically, though experts say it could take years to establish production.<\/p>\n

Trump has previously flip-flopped over whether to allow Ukraine to produce Patriots, with the US also facing pressure on its own stocks because of the war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia has opened a new front in its campaign against Ukraine, hitting several datacentres and internet providers in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-783070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}