In Ukraine, data centers ‘facing increased attacks’ in recent weeks: Ex-official

LVIV, Ukraine — Faced with a recent surge in Russian attacks on its data centers, Ukraine must urgently build more underground networks and boost its anti-ballistic and counter-drone capabilities to avoid the loss of critical infrastructure, the country’s former deputy minister of defense has warned.

In the last month, Moscow has continued to strike Ukrainian data centers and communications infrastructure, which were not prime targets earlier in the war. On Sept. 27, the headquarters of the war-torn country’s central mobile service provider, Kyivstar, was hit by a Russian drone strike. The same day, the Russian Defense Ministry also claimed responsibility for targeting the data center of Vodafone Ukraine, the country’s second-biggest cell provider network, according to Reuters.

“Data centers have been facing increased attacks these last few weeks, including strikes by Shahed drones. Russia also increased its cyberattacks even before the war started and has been adapting them to be even more sophisticated since,” Kateryna Chernohorenko, who was deputy minister of defense for digital transformation of Ukraine from 2023 to 2025, told Breaking Defense in an interview Sept. 26 at the IT Arena conference in Lviv. 

The issue has risen to the highest levels in Kyiv. In a statement published on his Telegram channel Sept. 25, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country plans to strengthen the protection of data centers.

“Additional decisions have been made to protect our data center infrastructure and ensure its uninterrupted operation, as well as other facilities that are critically important in the communications sector,” he said.

To protect these vital hubs, Chernohorenko explained that Ukraine had taken several preventive steps years ago, including moving data centers abroad and investing heavily in underground networks to reduce the likelihood of them being struck from above.

However, she argued that much more needs to be done given the current level of threat these facilities face. She said defending them effectively requires significant resources. 

She pointed to the Russians having done similar work by moving several facilities below ground, including drone production facilities, which remains a big challenge for Ukraine, as that makes them much harder to target and requires constant monitoring. 

“Naturally, you cannot move everything underground. … So an important aspect is boosting Ukrainian anti-ballistic and anti-drone capabilities, which are already in critically short supply,” Chernohorenko said. 

On counter-drone capabilities, she said Ukrainian F-16 fighter jets are among the most effective tools against Russian jet-powered drones. A Wall Street Journal report published Tuesday highlighted major sustainment issues and delays affecting the jets, with Ukraine relying heavily on Western support and nearly its entire F-16 fleet reportedly out of commission.

“Ukraine’s F-16 fighter jets are critically behind on their maintenance schedule as they were moved from the US to Belgium, where maintenance takes up to 40 weeks instead of the usual two to six,” Chernohorenko added. 

She warned that unless Kyiv obtains “thousands of F-16 rounds” and the sustainment cycle is sped up, the country could ultimately face a shortage of operational fighter jets by the end of the year.