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Russian drone strike kills four, targets Kyiv data center and services
Four killed, several injured after Russian drone strike hits data center in Kyiv's Solomianskyi district
A Russian drone strike hit an office building in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district on September 25, killing four people and injuring at least seven others, including a child, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko . The blast shattered windows and damaged the building’s facade, while several cars in a nearby parking lot caught fire. Emergency crews quickly extinguished the blaze, and all rescue services continue to work at the site.
According to media reports, the building targeted in the attack houses the internet provider Datagroup. The company confirmed that its data center was struck, but said none of its employees were injured. “Client data is safe, and all services continue to operate from backup locations. We had planned infrastructure redundancies, so even after the data center was damaged we are still keeping services running,” the company said in a statement. Specialists are now assessing the damage and working to restore infrastructure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the latest attack on Kyiv, offering condolences to the families of those killed and injured. He said that along with the data center, Russian drones also struck a warehouse used by McDonald’s. “A strike drone against everyday goods. The Russians continue to expand their escalating campaign: American and other businesses, data centers, internet providers—everyday life itself is a target for Russia. All of this affects people’s ability to communicate, study, work. It’s vital that the world responds, and that Russia feels the consequences for its terrorism. Our long-range capabilities and global sanctions must work together for this—real consequences for Russia,” Zelensky wrote .
Meanwhile, the congress and exhibition center attacked by Russian forces two days earlier has announced a temporary suspension of operations. Previous reports suggested the intended target could have been a data center located within the congress and exhibition center. Damage assessments are ongoing.
Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centers and communications hubs have become increasingly frequent. After the drone strike on Kyiv on September 24, the provider Etherlink reported damage to a main network node, leaving some customers in central Kyiv without internet access. The company responded by saying it would move its network core to another location.
The attack also affected providers MiroHost and Cityhost. The Ukrainian data center hosting MiroHost’s capacities was destroyed, while Cityhost lost some of its equipment and began restoring backup copies on servers abroad. This was not the first such incident. On September 23, damage to data centers left some Kyiv customers without internet and forced providers Pautina and UTELS to carry out emergency repairs.
Anatolii Frolenkov, a representative of an internet exchange point, warned that Russia has been systematically targeting data centers and communication hubs for several weeks. While experts say these strikes are disruptive, they argue that they are not enough to completely cut Ukrainians off from phone and internet services. In Lutsk, however, electronic displays at public transport stops have already stopped working.
Military analyst Oleksandr Kovalenko says these attacks serve little military purpose, but believes their logic is to destabilize information transfer, disrupt warning systems, disable military IT infrastructure, undermine Ukraine’s economic and administrative stability, and inflict maximum damage on buildings where multiple offices and companies are based.
A Russian strike on September 17 in Kyiv region also affected the telecommunications company Kyivstar, which serves approximately 22 million subscribers.
