Russia has been striking data centers across Ukraine, including a Datagroup facility in Kyiv's central business district, and about 100,000 households have lost internet access, Tom's Hardware reported Saturday. Some Ukrainian companies have started moving their data across the border to avoid further disruption.

What Happened

A Russian drone hit the Datagroup data center in central Kyiv, damaging the building and killing four people nearby, according to Tom's Hardware. Russia confirmed the attack and claimed Ukrainian military intelligence used the site. Moscow also said it is targeting other data and telecommunications centers owned by New-Telco, United DC, Kyivstar and Parkovyi.

The Kyiv Independent, reporting on strikes on Sept. 23 and 24, said the damage reached well beyond one building. It listed facilities run by UTELS, which lost power, as well as the Pavutyna data center, a CityHost equipment store and a main network node of the provider Etherlink. The founder of hosting company MiroHost, Oleksandr Olshansky, said its data center was 90% to 95% destroyed. Outages affected Kyiv and the Kyiv region, as well as the Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi regions.

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Russia's Defense Ministry claimed New-Telco carried internet traffic for Ukraine's Defense Ministry and that United DC served Ukrainian security agencies. The Kyiv Independent noted that those claims have not been verified.

Why It Matters

Data centers and carrier hubs in Ukraine host a mix of government systems, commercial cloud and hosting customers, banking, media and ordinary household connectivity. Hitting them affects all of those at once, which is why Ukrainian officials reject the military justification.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks affect people's ability to stay connected, study and work. He said Russia is widening its campaign to American and other businesses, data centers and internet providers, and described ordinary life as a target for Moscow. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stressed that fast alerts about incoming missiles and drones depend on this infrastructure and save lives.

Anatolii Frolenkov of the 1-IX internet exchange told the Kyiv Independent that the strikes mark a new phase, with Russia taking out the country's internet infrastructure systematically since September.

A Shift in Operator Planning

The decision by some companies to move data abroad shows how physical risk is now shaping data residency choices. Ukraine's government and many businesses already moved key systems and backups to foreign cloud providers after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. A renewed campaign against domestic data centers puts pressure on the hosting firms that stayed, and on the customers that depend on them for local, low-latency services.

Tom's Hardware compared the campaign to Iran's strikes on commercial data centers in the Middle East, which followed a U.S. bombing campaign and were among the first deliberate attacks on civilian data center infrastructure in a conflict.

What to Watch

Watch for further strikes on telecom and hosting sites, including those Russia has already named, and for how quickly damaged operators restore service or relocate customers. Another question is whether more Ukrainian companies and public bodies shift data abroad, and whether cloud providers serving Ukraine change how they handle data sovereignty and backup commitments there.