Russian Strike Campaign Again Shifts to Target Ukrainian Telecoms and Data Centers in Latest Barrage
Simplicius Sep 28
The Russian general staff has again interestingly evolved its tactics this past week. It seems in recent months, Russia has cycled through a gamut of different target types as a kind of ‘monthly theme’. First it was Ukrainian energy infrastructure, then recently it turned to bridges and warehouses, including the Nova Poshta postal service, and lately locomotives. But now the objective du jour has become Ukrainian telecoms, data centers, and internet infrastructure.
An open-source tally circulating on X lists the following figures for Kiev city and Kiev Region:
▫️January 2026: 109 strikes
▫️February 2026: 51 strikes
▫️March 2026: 21 strikes
▫️April 2026: 32 strikes
▫️May 2026: 90 strikes
▫️June 2026: 83 strikes
▫️July 2026: 111 strikes
▫️August 2026: 113 strikes
▫️September 2026: 155 strikes
It began last week when Russia struck Ukraine’s KyivStar telecom which, incidentally, it again struck last night. Recall that ex-CIA head Mike Pompeo was given a directorship at KyivStar for unknown reasons, presumably as it gives the CIA a direct control pipeline into Ukraine’s internet and mobile data, allowing the control, blackmail, and surveillance of anyone in the country.
KyivStar also happens to have a channel—which the company brags about—that shows a 24/7 live feed of “the Kremlin burning” that is meant to be a kind of twistedly soothing Ukrainian ASMR:
https://substack.com/redirect/f26a2b91-2947-44dc-95a6-39da34433ebc?j=eyJ1IjoiNjE1MGo0In0.P7Brh7dIYodA74JOqdKAxJQDuNahEV_XH7I_-uLPinI
MSM outlets have begun picking up on Russia’s new shift, noting that a hundred thousand plus internet customers have already experienced outages:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/26/russia-strikes-ukraine-digital-economy-attacks-isps-datacentres
Russia has opened a new front in its campaign against Ukraine, hitting several datacentres and internet providers in Kyiv this week in an apparent attempt to weaken the digital backbone of the economy.
About 100,000 households in Kyiv and the surrounding region suffered temporary internet outages after strikes on Wednesday and Thursday, according to Ukraine’s digital transformation ministry.
On Friday, another drone strike in central Kyiv hit the offices of Datagroup, one of Ukraine’s largest telecommunications companies, killing four people.
“Russia has targeted major Ukrainian datacentres, seeking to disrupt the flow of information,” Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, wrote on X.
In the latest round, Russia even targeted Ukrainian science and technological centers, which evoked immediate outcries from pearl-clutching Euro-pharisees:
One of the perhaps inadvertent targets was reportedly a legendary Ukrainian scientist responsible for much of the country’s arms industry:
Former Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Gorbulin, has been injured. His assistant died as a result of the strike on the building of the National Academy of Sciences.
Gorbulin’s office was located one floor below the epicenter of the impact.
