Skip to content
Today
Sections

Build Independently confirmed2 publishers 2 min read Published Updated

Russia names Ukrainian data center operators as targets after its drone hits Datagroup in Kyiv

Russia confirmed striking Datagroup's Kyiv data center and said it is also targeting sites owned by New-Telco, United DC, Kyivstar and Parkovyi. Hosting plans for Ukraine now need a recovery copy that survives losing a whole building to a strike.

The Engineer · Build desk

Send a correction

What happened

  • A Russian drone hit the facility in a central business district of Kyiv, and the BBC reported that four people in the area were killed.
  • Russia justified the Datagroup strike by claiming that Ukrainian military intelligence used the site.
  • The attacks have left about 100,000 households in Ukraine without internet connectivity.
  • A Ukrainian government official said the country's internet network is highly decentralized but that people should still expect some local disruptions.
  • Tom's Hardware counts Iran's March drone and missile attacks on AWS regional data centers in Dubai and Bahrain among the first deliberate strikes on commercial facilities.

Why it matters

  • Who's exposed exposure On Russia's stated logic, colocation tenants inherit the targeting risk of whoever else rents space in the same building.
  • What it limits constraint Decentralization limits how many subscribers one strike disconnects. It cannot bring back servers inside a building that was hit, so hosted workloads need their own recovery path.
  • What it sets up precedent Kyiv follows the Gulf strikes on AWS sites, so physical attack belongs in the threat model for commercial hosting near any active conflict.

Disaster recovery plans are usually written around power and fiber failures, where the building comes back once the fault is fixed. The Datagroup strike [3] adds the case where the building does not come back. Russia has also named the other operators where it says it is aiming [4].

Counting Datagroup, Russia has named five operators [9]. Put a primary at one and a recovery copy at another, and both sit on the same list. The two sites are independent for a grid fault and correlated for the failure Russia has declared. Some companies have begun migrating data across the border to avoid disruption [15]. In my view that is where the recovery copy belongs: outside every named operator and outside the country under attack.

The restore drill changes with it. Failing over to a warm secondary tests replication. Losing the building tests something harder. The team rebuilds from backups on hardware abroad, and nobody can say when anyone will reach the original racks again. Any runbook step that begins with sending a technician to the site deserves a second read.

The same buildings carry more than commercial workloads. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the strikes would affect the flow of "life-saving information" [6]. He said "Rapid alerts about missile and drone threats are essential" [7]. "It is not a military target," Sybiha said [13]. "It is essential to keeping everyday life functioning." [8] President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote that "for Russia, all ordinary life is simply a target" [10].

The reporting confirms one strike on a named operator [3]. For the other four, the record so far is Russia's stated intent [4]. Tom's Hardware cites multiple reports of other data centers and network infrastructure hit across the country, without naming the sites [2].

What to watch

  • Whether any of the four other named operators, including Kyivstar, reports a confirmed strike on one of its facilities.
  • Whether Russia adds operators beyond these five to its stated target list.
  • Whether Ukrainian operators or their tenants disclose how much capacity has moved across the border and where it went.

Clarity's read

What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives60
Confidence55
Why these scores

Claim ledger

Ranked by verification strength, evidence, and original report placement.

  1. [1]

    The attacks have left about 100,000 households in Ukraine without internet connectivity.

    Reported Supported Source: Tom's HardwareView cited source
  2. [2]

    Multiple reports suggest other data centers and network infrastructure have been hit across Ukraine.

    Reported Supported Source: Tom's Hardware, citing multiple reportsView cited source
  3. [3]

    Russia confirmed that it attacked the Datagroup data center site in Ukraine.

    Reported Supported Source: Tom's Hardware, reporting Russia's confirmationView cited source
  4. [4]

    Russia said it is also targeting other data and telecommunications centers owned by New-Telco, United DC, Kyivstar, and Parkovyi.

    Reported Supported Source: Tom's Hardware, reporting Russia's statementView cited source
  5. [5]

    One Ukrainian government official said Ukraine's internet network is highly decentralized, but people should still expect some local disruptions.

    Reported Supported Source: Unnamed Ukrainian government official, via Tom's HardwareView cited source
  6. [6]

    Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia's targeting of data centers would affect the flow of "life-saving information."

    Reported Supported Source: Andrii Sybiha, via Tom's HardwareView cited source
  7. [7]

    "Rapid alerts about missile and drone threats are essential"

    Reported Supported Source: Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine Foreign Minister, via Tom's HardwareView cited source
  8. [8]

    "It is essential to keeping everyday life functioning."

    Reported Supported Source: Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine Foreign Minister, via Tom's HardwareView cited source
  9. [9]

    Russia has named five data center or telecom operators in total: Datagroup, which it confirmed attacking, plus four it said it is targeting.

    Derived Supported
  10. [10]

    "for Russia, all ordinary life is simply a target."

    Reported Supported Source: President Volodymyr Zelensky, social media post, via Tom's HardwareView cited source
  11. [11]

    Iran's response to the U.S. bombing campaign in March, including drone and missile attacks on AWS Middle East regional data centers in Dubai and Bahrain, was one of the first instances where commercial civilian data center infrastructure was deliberately targeted.

    Reported Supported Source: Tom's HardwareView cited source
  12. [12]

    Russia claimed that Ukrainian military intelligence used the Datagroup site.

    Reported Contested Source: Tom's Hardware, reporting Russia's claimView cited source
  13. [13]

    "It is not a military target,"

    Reported Contested Source: Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine Foreign Minister, via Tom's HardwareView cited source
  14. [14]

    According to the BBC, a Russian drone hit the data center, situated in a central business district in Kyiv, damaging it and killing four people in the area.

    Reported Insufficient Source: Tom's Hardware, citing the BBCView cited source
  15. [15]

    Some companies have begun migrating their data across the border to avoid disruption.

    Reported Insufficient Source: Tom's HardwareView cited source

Sources

2 independent publishers whose own reporting we read for this story.

  1. mezha.net

    17 articles · September 28, 2026

    Російські авіабомби вдарили по Сумах: двоє загиблих і 23 поранених
  2. tomshardware.com

    1 article · September 26, 2026

    Russia bombs Ukrainian data centers in latest escalation

Topics and entities

Topics

Entities