Zelensky says Ukraine will keep hitting Russian data centers in retaliation
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine will continue to strike Russian data centers in response to attacks on Ukrainian internet infrastructure. His comments came after a Ukrainian attack on a Yandex facility in Ryazan Oblast caused outages for banking services and other platforms. Zelensky added that Ukraine does not target children, but warned that certain adults would face consequences.
Zelensky told reporters on Oct. 8 that Kyiv would answer Russian strikes on Ukrainian internet facilities with comparable actions. His remarks followed a Ukrainian operation against a Yandex site in Ryazan Oblast, which disrupted banking access and several online services, including Google, RuTube, and Russian Railways.
Yandex Cloud reported an incident and power issues, cautioning that other cloud services might be affected. The exchange came after late-September Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centers and internet providers, which reportedly cut service to roughly 100,000 households. Zelensky also said Ukraine would not harm children, while promising consequences for some adults.
The tit-for-tat strikes could affect ordinary users in both countries, as banking apps, cloud platforms, transport websites, and internet access may become unreliable. In Ukraine, households already hit by service cuts may face further hardship, while Russian customers of targeted providers could encounter outages and data migration problems. Escalating infrastructure attacks may also heighten public anxiety, complicate business operations, and make digital services less dependable, though the full scope may remain unclear.