How Drone Strikes Disrupted Internet Access in Kyiv

Russian drone strikes exposed how damage to data centers and network facilities can interrupt internet service well beyond a single building. Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry reported connectivity problems for about 100,000 households in Kyiv and the surrounding region after the September 23 attacks. Reports of further outages followed a September 25 strike, but they do not establish a new combined household total.14

What caused the September 23 outages?

Internet providers Pavutyna and UTELS reported damage to Kyiv data centers. UTELS said a damaged facility housed its core network equipment and that the equipment had lost power; repair crews were working to restore it. The available report establishes a power failure at the equipment, not that all of UTELS’s core equipment was destroyed.2122

The disruption reached other networks, too. NetBlocks identified partial connectivity losses at Kyiv Link, Pautina, Utels and Crazy Network following the attack.26 Forbes Ukraine reported that damage to a Kyiv traffic-exchange node affected Crazy Network service in Vinnytsia and the Khmelnytskyi region, showing how a failure in the capital could be felt elsewhere. That report does not establish a nationwide internet outage.24

The ministry said specialists were assessing damage and carrying out repairs on September 23. Provider reports described further restoration work, but the cited accounts do not establish when service was fully restored across every affected network.121

What changed after the September 25 strike?

Local reports said some FAUST subscribers lost internet access after the strike on the Protasov business center, where the Cosmonova data center was located. Those reports did not confirm the precise cause of each connection failure, how many subscribers were affected or when service would return.46

A separate report said a September 25 drone strike on a Kyiv business center killed four people and damaged a data center. The material cited here does not independently confirm that all four deaths occurred at Protasov, so that toll should not be attributed more specifically on this evidence.12 Another report said a Datagroup data center was damaged that day, while customer data remained safe and services continued from backup sites.13

How did officials respond?

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had struck data centers and other sites it claimed were used for Ukraine’s benefit. That is Moscow’s stated rationale, not independent verification of the facilities’ military use.1 President Volodymyr Zelensky said attacks on data centers and internet providers disrupted people’s ability to stay connected, study and work. He announced additional decisions to protect data centers and other communications-critical facilities, without specifying the measures in the cited report.1213 Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha warned that attacks on major data centers could disrupt information flows and endanger people.3031

The household figure remains the clearest measure of the internet impact: about 100,000 households affected after September 23, with additional FAUST disruptions reported after September 25 but not quantified. Provider accounts identify physical damage, lost power and network-level connectivity losses; they do not support a precise final restoration time or a single cumulative outage figure for both dates.142126