Russia intensifies strikes on Ukraine’s digital infrastructure — ISW

Since mid-September, Russia has intensified strikes on Ukraine's digital infrastructure, including data centers and telecommunications, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). This campaign aims to damage Ukraine's economy and disrupt daily digital services for civilians and businesses. The Russian Defense Ministry openly admits to targeting data centers, claiming it's to disrupt communications for Ukraine's Defense Forces.

However, Ukrainian officials have found no evidence that these strikes have harmed military communications or government networks. The strikes have caused temporary internet outages, notably in Kyiv, but Ukrainian internet providers maintain that Russia is unlikely to fully shut down the country's internet. Ukraine's internet infrastructure is highly distributed, with thousands of providers, limiting the impact of attacks on individual facilities.

The growing focus on data centers is seen as an attempt by Moscow to undermine Ukraine's economy, following intensified strikes against port, railway, and logistics infrastructure. Russian attacks damaged multiple data centers in Kyiv between September 23 and 25, leading to internet disruptions for around 100,000 households. Other infrastructure, such as internet traffic exchange facilities and hosting providers, also experienced disruptions.

President Zelenskyy approved additional measures to protect data centers and critical communications infrastructure, emphasizing that government officials and security chiefs would be accountable for their implementation. Despite these challenges, Ukraine's decentralized internet infrastructure makes a nationwide shutdown extremely difficult.