Russia’s Defense Ministry claims that strikes on Kyiv damaged a data center supporting mobile internet services and Starlink satellite communications used by Ukraine’s armed forces. The claim was reported on 26 September by Daily Sabah, which said it could not be independently verified — and it should be read for what it is: an assertion by a combatant with an obvious interest in advertising damage to Ukraine’s communications. No Ukrainian agency, and neither SpaceX nor Starlink, has confirmed that a facility carrying Starlink traffic was hit.
What is documented is narrower but serious. Russian attacks over several days damaged data centers and internet providers in the capital, Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry reported internet problems for around 100,000 households, and a fire at a Starlink ground station in Poland is being examined by Polish officials as possible sabotage. Together they point at the same layer of the network: the ground-side plumbing, not the satellites.
Key facts
- Moscow said the damaged Kyiv data center supported mobile internet and Starlink communications for Ukraine’s military; Daily Sabah said the claim could not be verified independently, and no corroboration has been published since.
- Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry said around 100,000 households in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast had internet problems after a 23 September drone attack, the Kyiv Independent reported.
- Named damage was reported by at least six providers: UTELS, Pavutyna, Crazy Network, Etherlink, MiroHost and CityHost.
- Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said a 23 September fire at a Starlink ground station in Wola Krobowska may have been a deliberate attempt to disrupt its operations.
- No change to Starlink pricing, plans or availability has been announced in Ukraine or Poland as a result of the attacks; SpaceX’s availability map still lists both countries as served and Russia as unavailable.
Why it matters
Starlink, the satellite internet service operated by SpaceX, is described by the Kyiv Independent as the lifeblood of Ukraine’s battlefield communications and a tool for piloting drones. Beyond high-speed links between combat positions and command posts, the outlet reports, Starlink mounted on drones allows an almost unjammable connection that is not constrained by the limits of traditional radio antennas.
That is precisely why the terrestrial layer — data centers, internet exchange points and gateway stations — has become a target. Satellites in low Earth orbit are effectively out of reach; the buildings, fibre and power feeding the network are not. Both the Kyiv strikes and the Polish fire hit that layer.
What was hit in Kyiv
Russian strikes damaged multiple data centers and internet providers in Kyiv over two days, disrupting service for about 100,000 households, the Kyiv Independent reported. Anatolii Frolenkov of the 1-IX internet exchange point, which routes traffic between Ukrainian networks, told the outlet: “This is the beginning of a phase where, since September, they have started taking it out systematically.” He said attacks on communications infrastructure were not new, but the escalation against data centers and communication nodes marked a shift in intensity.
Six providers reported specific damage. UTELS said a Kyiv data center holding its core equipment lost power. Pavutyna said one of its data centers was hit. Crazy Network said a strike damaged a central traffic exchange, disrupting internet and telephone service in the capital and in Vinnytsia and Khmelnytskyi oblasts. Etherlink said an attack on 24 September damaged its main network node and forced it to relocate the core of its network. Hosting provider MiroHost said the Ukrainian data center housing its infrastructure was destroyed, founder Oleksandr Olshansky told dev.ua, adding that 90–95% of its customers use infrastructure outside Ukraine and were unaffected. CityHost said equipment it kept at a Kyiv data center was destroyed. Our earlier report covered how Russia cut Kyiv internet while Poland probed the Starlink hub fire.
The Kyiv damage came during a wider overnight barrage on 26–27 September in which Ukraine’s Air Force said air defenses shot down 134 of 173 Russian drones. Drones struck several Kyiv districts, damaging an office building in Solomianskyi district, and Odesa region Governor Oleh Kiper described a massive attack on civilian infrastructure. Those strikes were not tied by officials to internet or satellite infrastructure.
How much of Ukraine’s traffic actually runs through these nodes?
This is the question Moscow’s claim invites and no one has answered. There is no published figure for the share of Ukrainian military communications that passes through the Kyiv exchange points and data centers damaged this month, and neither Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry nor the General Staff has offered one.
The available evidence pulls in two directions. Frolenkov’s account describes systematic targeting of the nodes that stitch Ukrainian networks to one another, and the ministry’s 100,000-household figure shows the consumer impact is measurable. But the single hardest number to emerge from the outage points the other way: MiroHost’s founder said 90–95% of the company’s customers run infrastructure outside Ukraine and were untouched — a marker of how much Ukrainian hosting and routing has been moved abroad since 2022, precisely to survive this kind of attack.
Starlink’s military value, as the Kyiv Independent describes it, rests on the link between a dish and a satellite passing overhead, not on racks in Kyiv. For Moscow’s claim to carry the weight its ministry gives it, the damaged building would have had to host terrestrial routing, backhaul or a point of presence feeding Starlink traffic — and nothing published so far shows that it did. Readers should hold that gap open rather than close it in either direction.
The Polish ground station fire
Gawkowski said the station in Wola Krobowska, in Masovian Voivodeship, is operated by state-owned telecoms company Exatel and serves as an internet hub carrying traffic through Poland, including to Ukraine. He suggested Russia could be behind the incident as part of hybrid warfare and said a disruption could affect internet access for the Ukrainian military. Polish authorities had not concluded their investigation.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the circumstances “do not look good” but cautioned it was too early to call it sabotage or an accident, Polish news agency PAP reported. A separate briefing republished by europesays said local authorities described the fire as an act of sabotage.
The Polish site is arguably the more consequential of the two incidents, for a structural reason: a gateway station is where satellite traffic is handed to the terrestrial internet, so damage there can degrade service for users whose dishes are hundreds of kilometres away and entirely undamaged. SpaceX does not publish the locations of the gateways serving Ukraine, and neither the company nor Exatel has said what share of Ukrainian Starlink traffic, if any, is groundlinked at Wola Krobowska.
Prices, plans and availability: what changes for users
Nothing, so far as any party has announced. There has been no notice from SpaceX or from the Ukrainian or Polish governments of a change to Starlink pricing, plan structure or availability tied to the strikes or the fire, and the architecture of the service explains why that would be expected: a user terminal reaches the constellation directly and does not depend on a Ukrainian ISP’s data center for its first hop. SpaceX’s own availability map lists Ukraine and Poland as served markets and shows no service offered inside Russia.
Who pays is the separate, and politically live, question. Polish officials — including Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski — have said publicly that Warsaw funds the bulk of the Starlink terminals and subscriptions Ukraine uses, with Sikorski putting the cost at roughly $50 million a year. That subsidy, rather than any retail tariff, is what keeps front-line terminals online, and it is why Polish politics, a Polish ground station and a Polish minister’s sabotage warning all sit inside a story about Ukrainian connectivity. Consumers elsewhere should expect their own bills and plan availability to be unaffected by these events; the risk being described here is to wartime capability, not to the retail product.
Background: the fight over Starlink access
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said he pleaded with Musk to expand Starlink coverage for Ukraine so it could strike Russian ballistic missile launchers inside Russia, according to the europesays briefing, which said Kyiv has an acute shortage of air defenses. Three sources told the Kyiv Independent in an exclusive published on Yahoo that Musk remains opposed, with one saying Musk wants a deal in this war, not escalation. We set out that dispute in our report on how Starlink stays off over Russia as Stubb presses Musk for access.
The Kyiv Independent reports that over 2026 Ukrainian forces have found increasing success with Starlink-enabled drones over Russian-occupied territory, particularly in the 50–200km “middle-strike” range, where Russian logistics routes have been devastated. That success is the backdrop to both the coverage fight and the strikes on the ground layer.
What to watch next
- Whether Polish investigators formally classify the Wola Krobowska fire as sabotage, and whether Exatel quantifies any service impact.
- Whether Ukraine’s Digital Transformation Ministry or the affected providers confirm that any damaged facility carried Starlink traffic — the test of Moscow’s claim.
- Any statement from SpaceX, which has not publicly addressed the Russian Defense Ministry’s assertion.
- Whether the Danish intelligence warning of more frequent strikes on infrastructure supporting Ukraine is borne out by further incidents inside NATO states.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did a Russian strike really knock out Starlink service in Kyiv?
There is no confirmation that it did. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed a damaged Kyiv data center supported Starlink communications for Ukraine’s military, and Daily Sabah, which reported the claim on 26 September, said it could not be independently verified. Ukrainian authorities have confirmed damage to data centers and internet providers and about 100,000 households with internet problems, but have not confirmed that any facility carrying Starlink traffic was hit.
Does the strike change Starlink prices, plans or availability for customers?
Neither SpaceX nor Ukraine’s government has announced any change to Starlink pricing, plans or availability because of the strikes. A Starlink dish connects directly to satellites overhead rather than through a local internet provider’s data center, so damage at that layer does not, by itself, change what a subscriber pays or whether service can be bought. SpaceX’s public availability map lists Ukraine and Poland as served markets and offers no coverage inside Russia.
Who pays for the Starlink terminals Ukraine uses?
A large share is paid for by third parties rather than by Ukrainian users. Polish officials, including Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, have said publicly that Warsaw funds the bulk of the Starlink terminals and subscriptions used in Ukraine, at a cost Sikorski has put at roughly $50 million a year. That funding arrangement is one reason a fire at a Polish ground station and warnings from Poland’s digital affairs minister matter well beyond Poland.
Does Starlink work over Russian territory?
No. The Kyiv Independent reports that Starlink was switched on over Ukraine shortly after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion but does not work over Russian territory — which is where Ukraine’s deep-strike campaign against military, oil and logistics targets takes place. SpaceX’s own availability map shows no service offered inside Russia.
Did Elon Musk ever restrict Starlink for Russian forces?
Yes. According to the Kyiv Independent, Musk’s decision in February 2026 to cut off use of the service for Russian forces was crucial to Ukraine’s battlefield successes this year. Mykhailo Fedorov — Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation — initiated the talks with Musk on restricting Russian access.
What did Danish intelligence warn about attacks on infrastructure supporting Ukraine?
The Danish Defence Intelligence Service said on 24 September that Russia will intensify its hybrid war with more frequent attacks on the West and NATO, and flagged a "low but growing risk" of a limited military attack, including isolated drone or missile strikes on infrastructure supporting Ukraine, per the Kyiv Independent.
How did NATO respond to the sabotage and drone incidents?
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the alliance is capable of handling sabotage and drone incidents in Europe and has good action plans in place, and that citizens of the 32 NATO countries can remain calm, according to a Ukraine war briefing republished by europesays. He said the rising number of hybrid incidents shows Vladimir Putin is losing the war.
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