Russia Strikes Kyivstar's Headquarters in a Widening War on Ukraine's Internet
The head office of Ukraine’s largest mobile provider was hit on Sunday, the company said, with no casualties reported. Russia’s defence ministry said it had also struck a data centre belonging to Vodafone Ukraine, the second-largest network. Volodymyr Zelensky said a Kyiv data centre was struck twice during the morning, wounding two children and an adult. Strikes on internet providers over the past week have cut service to about 100,000 households in and around the capital.
This is an attempt to switch off the machinery a modern state runs on — banking, payments, air-raid alerts, public services — timed for the start of winter. Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha put the cost in the plainest terms: “Russia has targeted major Ukrainian data centres, seeking to disrupt the flow of information. Rapid alerts about missile and drone threats are essential — they save lives.” At least three people were killed elsewhere on Sunday. Three glide bombs struck near a family support centre in Sumy, killing two, and a drone hit a car in Kharkiv, killing the driver; in Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko said drones struck a high-rise and landed near a kindergarten and a playground. Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, dismissed Saturday’s meeting with his German counterpart, saying he had “simply reiterated his official position condemning Russia” and adding: “You can judge for yourself whether that counts as dialogue or not.” Watch whether the grid or the network fails first.