Russia's drone campaign against Ukraine's data centers has gone from sporadic to systematic, and the first wave alone knocked out internet access for 100,000 households.
Since September 23, Russian jet-powered drones have repeatedly targeted data centers and telecom infrastructure in and around Kyiv, according to Reporters Without Borders. Ukraine's digital transformation ministry says those initial strikes left 100,000 households in the Kyiv region without internet. Russia has since escalated, hitting additional data centers and mobile networks across the city. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials are now pressing allies for more air defense systems to protect the infrastructure.
Ukraine treats digital services as wartime infrastructure, powering everything from banking to air-raid alerts, so repeated blackouts hit civilian resilience directly, not just convenience. ACLED analyst Tetiana Gaviuk noted that targeting telecom infrastructure isn't new; Russia has shelled fiber lines and cell towers for years. What's different now is the concentration: multiple providers and facilities hit within days, a sign Moscow is treating connectivity itself as a strategic target.
Air-defense requests are the standard ask after any strike. The harder question is whether allies can supply enough interceptors to stop drones that are, by design, cheap enough to send in swarms.