A Russian ballistic missile attack overnight completely destroyed a Datagroup data center, leaving its equipment and infrastructure beyond repair, the Ukrainian telecommunications provider said on Monday, Oct. 19.
The overnight ballistic attack killed a 21-year-old woman and injured eight others, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service and President Volodymyr Zelensky. Russian missiles damaged buildings and infrastructure across three Kyiv districts, including a metro station, medical facilities, educational institutions and residential buildings.
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No employees were injured, and the company continues serving customers through backup facilities, Datagroup said.
“The restoration and further operation [of the data center] are impossible,” the company said in a statement.
The attack comes amid a series of Russian strikes on Ukraine’s digital infrastructure, including data centers and telecommunications facilities in Kyiv. Ukraine has also struck Russian data centers in a series of drone attacks targeting technology infrastructure.
Russia targets Ukraine’s digital infrastructure
Russian attacks in late September damaged several data centers and communications facilities in Kyiv, disrupting internet services for customers of multiple providers.
Companies including Datagroup, MiroHost and UTELS reported damage to their infrastructure, while other providers experienced service disruptions.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation said earlier attacks had temporarily disrupted internet access for around 100,000 households in Kyiv and the surrounding region.
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On Sept. 25, Datagroup reported damage to its data center but said customer data had been preserved and services were continuing through backup facilities.
Russia has also openly acknowledged targeting Ukrainian data centers. On Oct. 16, Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin that Russian forces were striking data centers alongside strategic bridges and railway infrastructure.
Ukraine strikes three Yandex data centers in Russia
Ukraine launched a series of drone attacks against data centers operated by Russian technology giant Yandex in October, disrupting services used by Russian businesses and consumers.
On Oct. 8, Ukrainian drones struck a Yandex data center in Sasovo, in Russia’s Ryazan Oblast, triggering a fire and forcing the facility to shut down. The outage affected some Yandex services, including its cloud computing platform and online storage and document services.
A day later, a second strike disabled several modules at a Yandex data center in Kaluga Oblast. The damage threatened further disruptions to online services, including those used by Russian companies.
On the night of Oct. 11, a third Yandex data center, in Vladimir Oblast, was attacked, bringing the number of targeted facilities to three in four days. Two facilities were forced to shut down completely, while the third sustained infrastructure damage.
The attacks disrupted services beyond Yandex’s own products, affecting businesses that rely on its cloud infrastructure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged Ukraine’s attacks on Russian facilities, describing them as a response to Russian strikes against Ukraine’s digital infrastructure.
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