Russian Strikes Destroy Kyiv Data Centers, Cutting Air Raid Alerts for 100,000 Homes as Attacks Kill Civilians Across the Capital

Russian Geran-5 jet-powered drones struck multiple co-location data centers and internet exchange points in Kyiv on September 23, according to Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation and the internet monitoring group NetBlocks. Because several internet service providers route traffic through the same physical hubs, destroying one building knocked out connectivity for every ISP whose equipment sat inside it.

NetBlocks confirmed connectivity losses across at least four networks: Kyiv Link, Pavutyna, UTELS, and Crazy Network, according to Tech Times. Roughly 100,000 households across Kyiv and the surrounding region lost internet service, Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation said, as reported by United24 Media.

UTELS said a Kyiv data center housing its core network equipment lost power in the strike, threatening service across a network that had grown to more than 200,000 apartments in the capital. The company restored service to most customers within roughly two hours, per Tech Times. Pavutyna, which had launched a high-speed fiber network in August 2025, reported worse damage: one of its data centers was hit directly and nearly half its network went dark, with core equipment and communications lines destroyed. Crazy Network said the strike on a central traffic exchange point disrupted service not just in Kyiv but in Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi oblasts as well.

Ukraine's air raid warning system pushes alerts to residents through smartphone apps and messaging platforms that depend on the same civilian internet infrastructure the strikes destroyed. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on X that Russia "targeted major Ukrainian data centers, seeking to disrupt the flow of information," calling data centers "critical civilian infrastructure" and "not a military target," according to RBC Ukraine. Sybiha said the goal was to destabilize civilian life and pressure the population, and he called for more sanctions and more missile interceptors.

Russia's Ministry of Defense has offered a different justification. According to Ukrainian political analyst Andrii Smolii, cited by United24 Media, the Russian MoD claimed the strikes targeted "facilities supporting the Armed Forces of Ukraine," not civilian networks. No independent verification of that claim, or of Ukraine's counter-claim that the sites were purely civilian, was available in the reporting reviewed. Both governments' framing is contested, and claims of this kind are very hard to independently confirm in a war zone.

The same overnight attack on September 23 killed a woman walking to a shelter and a man sheltering in an underground pedestrian crossing in Kyiv, Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs Ivan Vyhivsky reported on Telegram, per Interfax-Ukraine. Eight more people were wounded, including a police officer who responded to help victims, with two in critical condition. Vyhivsky said more than 50 civilian objects were damaged in Kyiv that night, including residential buildings, post offices, a maternity hospital, and a textile enterprise.

In Kharkiv region the same morning, a Russian strike killed six agricultural workers who were sorting vegetables at the time and wounded 12 more, according to Vyhivsky. Odesa was also hit, with strike drones striking a shopping center and a polyclinic building. A day earlier, on September 22, a Shahed drone struck fuel storage tanks in Kyiv's Obolonskyi district, injuring eight people, three of whom were hospitalized, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said, per United24 Media.

On Friday, September 25, Russian drones struck a warehouse in the Brovary district used by the logistics partner of McDonald's, killing five people and injuring 27 across the capital, according to the Times of India. Kyiv Regional State Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said the facility, which stored refrigerated food products, was hit twice, first around 3 a.m. and again later in the day, with the second strike sparking a fire that destroyed the food storage section entirely. "There was no military facility here whatsoever," Tkachenko said, describing it as "a deliberate strike against a facility associated with an American company." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram that the strike was "an attack drone against ordinary food," framing it as part of a broader Russian campaign against civilian and commercial infrastructure.

Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation has not given a timeline for full restoration of internet service in Kyiv, according to United24 Media. Separately, European Union member states agreed on terms to allocate €6.6 billion to Ukraine from the European Peace Facility, according to Interfax-Ukraine, though the article's sourcing did not detail how quickly that funding would reach front-line air defense or reconstruction needs. Zelenskyy has said Ukraine is accelerating domestic production of interceptors aimed at Russian jet-powered Shahed drones, per Interfax-Ukraine, but no source specified how many additional interceptors that effort will produce or by when. Whether Kyiv's air raid alert network has any offline backup for the next data-center strike remains an open question none of the available reporting answered.