Zelensky says Kyiv data-centre strikes target ordinary life as internet outages spread

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on 25 September that Russian strikes on Ukraine’s data centres and internet providers were targeting ‘ordinary life’, after attacks damaged Kyiv facilities and disrupted internet service for about 100,000 households in the capital and surrounding region. The outage figure came from Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry; the available reports do not provide an independently measured total or a later restoration count.

Zelensky said the attacks affected people’s ability to stay connected, study and work. His statement describes what he believes Russia intends. The reported damage and service interruptions show effects on civilian users, but do not independently establish the full motive behind the strikes.

Damage across several facilities

A Russian drone hit Kyiv’s Inkom business centre on 25 September, damaging a data centre operated by Datagroup. Ukrainian officials said four people were killed at the business centre. Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko later reported seven people killed and 59 injured in the overnight attacks on the city overall; those citywide figures cover more than the strike on the business centre.

Datagroup said its employees were unharmed, customer data was preserved and all services continued to operate from backup sites. Its specialists were assessing the damage and working to restore the affected infrastructure, according to the company’s statement reported by Interfax-Ukraine. The continuing service does not remove the physical damage, but it shows how backup sites limited the immediate effect on this operator’s customers.

Other operators described disruptions beyond a single site. The Kyiv Independent reported that Crazy Network said damage to a central internet traffic exchange interrupted internet and telephone services in Kyiv and in the Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi regions. Etherlink said its main network node was damaged during the attacks and that it moved the core of its network after some customers lost service.

MiroHost’s founder said the Ukrainian data centre housing the company’s infrastructure was destroyed. He also said roughly 90–95% of its customers used infrastructure outside Ukraine and were unaffected. Those different outcomes illustrate why damage to a facility does not translate into the same level of interruption for every provider or customer.

Competing accounts of the targets

Russia’s Defence Ministry acknowledged targeting the Datagroup site and alleged it was used by Ukrainian military intelligence, according to the BBC. It also claimed strikes on New-Telco and United DC on 23 September, alleging military or security-service communications use. The Kyiv Independent said it could not independently verify those claims about the earlier facilities.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the data centres critical civilian infrastructure. He said rapid alerts about missile and drone threats save lives and argued that access to such information helps keep daily life functioning. His description of the sites’ role conflicts with Russia’s stated justification; the available reporting does not resolve every question about how each facility was used.

How far the disruption reached

Anatolii Frolenkov, a representative of the 1-IX internet exchange point, told the Kyiv Independent that attacks on communications infrastructure were not new, but that strikes on data centres and communications nodes had intensified since September. The outlet also reported an earlier Kyiv data-centre strike on 2 July that disrupted several providers, placing this week’s damage in a longer sequence of attacks.

Frolenkov said duplicated equipment, backup routes and facilities spread across different locations can limit the effect of an individual strike. Such redundancy costs money, he said, leaving some providers with fewer alternatives when equipment is destroyed. He considered a shutdown of internet access across Ukraine extremely difficult, while warning that users could still face outages and slower or unreliable service.

The Kyiv Independent described the effects so far as significant but scattered outages, rather than a nationwide blackout. The Guardian reported concern among Ukrainian officials and industry figures that repeated attacks could eventually disrupt networks supporting banks, payment systems and public services. That remains a concern about possible future damage, not a confirmed effect of this week’s strikes. Its report on the attacks provides further context in this related article: Russia strikes at heart of Ukraine’s digital economy with attacks on ISPs and datacentres.

Zelensky said after a 25 September meeting with defence and security officials that additional decisions had been made to protect data centres and other critical communications facilities. The available accounts do not establish how those measures will be implemented or whether they will prevent further interruptions. Repair costs and the longer-term effects on the damaged networks also remain unconfirmed.