Russian drones strike Ukraine’s data centers by exploiting air defense gaps
Russia’s targeting of data centers is part of a broader long-range strike campaign against energy and commercial infrastructure that “aims to make civilian life in Ukraine unbearable such that Ukraine will capitulate to Russia’s demands,” according to the DC think tank Institute for the Study of War. The Russian strategy seeks to exploit Ukraine’s current air defense gaps and damage or destroy Ukrainian infrastructure during the colder fall and winter seasons.
However, Russia’s intensified strike campaign also coincides with Russian battlefield setbacks, especially with the Ukrainian military’s Operation Vivaldi having retaken dozens of square miles of territory near the vital fortress belt cities guarding eastern Ukraine. So the strike campaign arguably represents the main avenue open for Russian President Vladimir Putin to try claiming some semblance of victory nearly five years after the start of his so-called special military operation in Ukraine.
Telecommunication resiliency and alternatives
Ukraine has already moved some data centers outside the country and invested in building more underground telecommunication networks to boost resiliency, said Kateryna Chernohorenko, Ukraine’s former deputy minister of defense for digital transformation, in an interview with Breaking Defense. But she also cautioned that “you cannot move everything underground” and emphasized the need for allies to help boost Ukraine’s air defenses against Russia’s ballistic missiles and drones.
The telecommunication outages could force more local media outlets and ordinary civilians to turn to satellite-based solutions, like Starlink. Former Ukrainian government advisor Serhii Sternenko recommended that residents of Kyiv purchase Starlink terminals or similar alternatives ahead of winter.
“These repeated Russian strikes on Ukraine’s telecommunications infrastructure not only affect the work of the media, but also the Ukrainian population’s right to information,” said Pauline Maufrais and Vincent Berthier, regional officer for Ukraine and head of the technology and journalism desk at Reporters Without Borders, in a statement. “These are war crimes and their gravity is undeniable.”
This is not the only instance of data centers becoming wartime targets in the past year. When the United States and Israel first attacked Iran in February 2026, Iran’s retaliatory strikes on the Gulf region included targeting multiple Amazon data centers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Amazon has since acknowledged the permanent loss of some Amazon Web Services customer data because of the data center destruction.
