Data center in occupied Donetsk destroyed, expert says

On October 20, a data center belonging to Ugletelecom and Elecom, the primary telecom provider in the occupied Donetsk region, was destroyed by an overnight attack. Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of the Occupation, confirmed the incident to the Kyiv Independent, stating that the data center was located on Postysheva St. 60 in occupied Donetsk.

Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+ reported explosions and shared footage of the damaged building facade on Postysheva St. 60. Russian proxy leader Alexey Kulemzin in Donetsk also reported the attack on social media, sharing video footage of the same building.

This is not the first time Moscow and Kyiv have targeted each other's data centers. Following a Russian attack on a Kyiv data center housing UTELS network equipment on September 23, which caused service disruptions, both sides have increasingly engaged in targeting their adversaries' infrastructure. In response, Ukraine conducted retaliatory strikes on Ukrainian soil between October 8 and October 18, targeting Yandex and Sberbank data centers, a Sberbank construction facility, and a VK social media data center.

The impact of Ukraine's strikes on Russian data centers extends beyond disrupted banking and online services, potentially hindering Ukraine's AI development and affecting military technology. Currently, 73% of Donetsk Oblast is under Russian occupation, and the city of Donetsk has been under Russian control since 2014. The occupied region has been grappling with severe water shortages, with residents reporting going days without running water.

Municipal services have also deteriorated, with garbage collection being one of the major issues affecting cities like Donetsk and Mariupol.