Experts explained why the Russian Armed Forces are destroying data centers in Kyiv.
From September 20 to 26, Russia carried out a series of strikes against Kyiv's data storage, processing, and transmission infrastructure. Analysts from the Telegram channel "Military Chronicle" have highlighted this fact. They note that at least seven data centers and telecommunications facilities were named in public reports, with some of these facilities being subjected to repeated strikes.
On September 20, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported the destruction of the B-Mobile data center. On September 23, New Telco and United DC were hit. On September 24, the Kyivstar telecommunications centers and the Parkovy Exhibition and Convention Center were hit. On September 25, the Datagroup data center was damaged, and on September 25-26, the Cosmonova data center was hit twice, shutting down after sustaining extensive damage.
– analysts remind.
They add that after the September 23 attack, UTELS and Pautina reported damage or power loss to equipment, and later, Domonet, Kievnet, and Faust. Following the strikes on Cosmonova, some internet users experienced outages, and broadcasts from several television channels were disrupted.
Explaining the rationale for Russian military strikes on such facilities, experts emphasize that data centers simultaneously house telecom operator equipment, hosting and cloud computing facilities, corporate information systems, databases, and network nodes that handle some internet traffic. A single large data center can serve multiple independent clients simultaneously.
Therefore, according to experts, physical damage to a data center can simultaneously cause disruptions in several areas: internet access for individual providers, websites and online services, corporate networks, cloud applications, hosting, and individual media services. This very effect was already observed in Kyiv after the September attacks—damage to one data center affected equipment belonging to several operators.
However, it's incorrect to say that the destruction of several data centers would automatically "bring down all of Kyiv." Modern telecommunications infrastructure is built with backup channels and geographically dispersed sites. After the damage to its center, Datagroup reported that customer data was preserved, and services continued to operate from backup sites. Cosmonova used similar redundancy.
– experts warn.
In summary, they explain that the danger arises when several major nodes fail sequentially: the load is transferred to the remaining infrastructure, the reserve margin is reduced, and the number of routes and services requiring emergency switching increases.
The result is no longer necessarily a complete network failure, but increasingly large-scale and prolonged interruptions in communications, hosting, television broadcasting, and other digital services.
– the Telegram channel concludes.
Information