Key facts
- Several Ukrainian media outlets experienced operational disruptions on Sept. 26 due to Russian strikes on Kyiv data centers.
- Armiia TV and Novyny.Live temporarily suspended operations following the attacks.
- Cosmonova's data center was damaged twice by Russian attacks, impacting Suspilne's video services.
- A Sept. 23 attack on UTELS's data center disrupted internet for about 100,000 households.
- Multiple internet providers reported infrastructure damage and outages after a Sept. 24 attack.
- Ukraine plans to strengthen protection for data centers and critical communications infrastructure.
Several Ukrainian media outlets reported disruptions to their operations on Sept. 26, following a series of Russian strikes targeting data centers in Kyiv. The intensified attacks in September have led to internet outages and affected access to various online services.
TV channel Novyny.Live announced a temporary suspension of broadcasting due to service disruptions stemming from a Russian attack on infrastructure in Kyiv. Similarly, the military media outlet Armiia TV also halted operations on Sept. 26 after being impacted by Russian strikes.
The public broadcaster Suspilne noted that its website's video players were non-operational because they relied on Cosmonova, a data center that sustained damage on Sept. 25. Cosmonova subsequently reported that its data center had been hit by a Russian attack for a second time, rendering it inoperable.
Earlier, on Sept. 23, a Russian attack damaged a Kyiv data center housing network equipment for internet provider UTELS. This incident also affected cloud service Fex.net and led to internet disruptions for approximately 100,000 households in Kyiv and the surrounding region, according to the Digital Transformation Ministry.
Further infrastructure damage and internet outages were reported by providers Domonet, Kievnet, and Faust following another Russian attack on Kyiv on Sept. 24. Russia also destroyed a data center hosting MiroHost's infrastructure, with the company stating it could not yet estimate when services would be restored.
On Sept. 25, a Datagroup data center was also damaged by a Russian attack. In response to the escalating attacks, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on Sept. 25, after a meeting with senior military officials, that the Ukrainian government had decided to enhance the protection of data centers and other critical communications infrastructure.
Anatolii Frolenkov, a representative of the 1-IX internet exchange point, described the situation as "the beginning of a phase where, since September, they have started taking it out systematically." However, Frolenkov also noted that completely disabling internet access across Ukraine would be extremely difficult due to providers' strategies such as duplicating equipment, maintaining backup routes, and distributing infrastructure across multiple locations, including outside Ukraine. He cautioned that these strategies are costly, leaving many providers more vulnerable.