Zelenskyy: Russia wants to leave Ukrainians without internet or communications, we are countering it

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO - 26 September, 22:28

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the Russians are seeking to leave Ukrainians without internet access or communications, but Ukraine is preparing countermeasures.

Source: Zelenskyy's evening address

Quote: "The Russians are carrying out a campaign of strikes against Ukrainian data centres and our communications infrastructure. Everyone sees this threat. The Russians have a simple goal: to leave Ukrainians without the internet, to leave us without communications, without the relevant digital services. We are acting swiftly to counter this.

There have been Staff [of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief – ed.] decisions on this, and at every stage there are clearly defined steps to ensure that Ukraine is protected from this threat as well."

Background:

On 23 September, a Russian attack damaged a data centre in Kyiv housing key equipment belonging to internet service provider Utels. The attack also caused disruptions to the Fex.net cloud service.
On the same day, around 100,000 households in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast experienced internet disruptions as a result of a Russian attack.
On 24 September, following a Russian attack on Kyiv, internet service providers Domonet, Kievnet and Faust reported damage to infrastructure and internet disruptions.
On the same day, Russia destroyed a data centre hosting infrastructure belonging to hosting provider MiroHost. The company is currently unable to say when its services will be restored.
On 25 September, a data centre belonging to Datagroup was damaged in a Russian attack.
Zelenskyy said that during a meeting of the Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, decisions had been taken on protecting data centres and other facilities critical to communications.

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