Ukraine persists with Russian oil refinery strikes, defying Trump on fuel price warnings

The Russo-Ukrainian war has now spilled over into the digital world, with the Russian military reportedly targeting Ukraine's data centers. Popular pirate websites, which host torrent trackers like 1337x (also known as Leet X) and NordicQuality, have experienced periods of downtime due to kinetic blasts that brought several machines in their networks offline.

These sites have been battling DDoS attacks for months, but now face a new threat in the form of direct destruction of servers. Despite being online again, pirates may face an uncertain future as the servers for such sites are typically not directly visible to the internet and instead rely on content delivery networks like Cloudflare.

The exact Ukrainian data center firms hosting these sites remain unclear. Virtual Systems reported strikes on September 23rd, which temporarily knocked out its facilities. Other firms including MiroHost Ukraine, CosmoNova, DataGroup, CityHost, and telco KyivStar have also been hit. Russian authorities claim Vodafone Ukraine was struck as well.

Most strikes were concentrated around Kyiv, causing several companies to relocate operations to other regions or countries. Despite facing shutdowns, blacklisting by Google, and blacklisting across multiple countries, the 1337x tracker remains the second most-visited pirating site, with around 40-50 million monthly visits. This demonstrates that neither laws nor missiles can effectively curb piracy.

Ukraine, Russia, and other Eastern European countries are popular choices for hosting torrent- and piracy-related websites, thanks to the region's lax approach to copyright law, legal liability, and difficulty in identifying website operators. However, Ukraine is shifting its legal stance to more closely align with the European Union as part of its bid for membership in the bloc.