Ukrainian drone strikes have damaged Russian data centers belonging to Yandex, Sberbank, VKontakte and the Ministry of Finance, prompting Russian firms to explore underground facilities. State telecom Rostelcom is in talks with mining company Norilsk about relocating centers below ground, and a regional governor has proposed building them in open-pit coal mines disguised with parks above. Putin also signed a decree on November 2 requiring operators to reserve 10 percent of capacity for emergency state use, and authorized potential reliance on foreign data centers.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-11-03
Ukrainian startup CODE380 has built a pocket-sized receiver called the D·Vision SDR that intercepts unencrypted live video feeds from many Russian reconnaissance and attack drones, letting Ukrainian operators see what the drone's camera sees. At about 10 ounces, it is reported to be less than half the weight of competing Ukrainian detection devices, and it can also pick up the newer radio frequencies used by Russia's Molniya drones since June.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-11-03
President Vladimir Putin has directed non-state-owned data centers across Russia to set aside 10% of their capacity for state IT infrastructure, to be released on 24 hours' notice via a new government commission. The order follows Ukrainian drone strikes that damaged Russia's largest data center and the finance ministry's facility, disrupting services like Yandex Mail and tax databases.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-11-02
Authorities in both Ukraine and Russia said their emergency alert mobile applications were compromised by cyberattacks. In Ukraine, affected users received false alerts warning of an imminent nuclear threat, while Russian officials separately confirmed their systems were also targeted.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-11-02
Rosstat confirmed its servers suffered coordinated cyberattacks between October 29-31 but denied claims of a large-scale data leak. Hacking groups CyberPartisans and Silent Crow say they stole 23TB of data, including restricted wartime casualty figures, and published a chart suggesting up to 50,000 Russian soldier deaths per month.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-11-02
ESET's APT Activity Report for Q2-Q3 2026 documents the first destructive cyberattack attributed to a Belarus-aligned threat actor in the European theater. The group, FrostyNeighbor (also known as UNC1151), used tools including Chisel, UltraVNC, Cobalt Strike, and a VBScript wiper deployed via Group Policy against a Ukrainian manufacturing firm tied to the country's transportation sector.
darkreading.com
· 2026-10-30
Vladimir Putin called Elon Musk 'a genius' at the Russia-Africa Summit and said the two are in 'close contact' regarding Rassvet, Russia's planned rival to Starlink. Putin noted Musk already has over 5,000 satellites in orbit while Russia is just beginning its own effort.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-29
The Pentagon inspector general's office rejected a bipartisan group of nine senators' request to investigate reported restrictions on SpaceX's Starlink and Starshield services used by Ukraine's military. Ukraine had reported that drones lost satellite connectivity above 161 km/h (100 mph) for about 10 days earlier this month before the limit was lifted. Inspector General Platte Moring told senators the Air Force and Space Force were better positioned to address the questions raised.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-29
A wounded Ukrainian soldier stranded in a contested 'kill zone' was reportedly airlifted to safety by attaching himself to the winch of a hexacopter drone, which carried him roughly 39 miles. The operation is described as a pioneering use of drone technology for battlefield medical evacuation.
wsj.com
· 2026-10-28
Elon Musk claimed Ukraine's military violated Starlink's terms of service by using the satellite internet system for offensive drone strikes, saying a 'loophole' enabling this was closed last week. Ukrainian officials, including presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov, dispute this, saying Starlink terminals can't track fast-moving targets or operate inside Russia, making such use technically impossible. The dispute follows Ukrainian complaints that SpaceX had recently limited Starlink service in ways that disrupted military drone operations.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-27
Ukrainian drones struck a government data center near Gorodets, about 230 miles from Moscow, that reportedly processes data for Russia's Federal Tax Service. The facility is one of two geo-distributed centers handling tax records, and Russian media cited by Data Center Dynamics warned the damage could affect state information systems. The Finance Ministry reportedly operates two other data centers, in Dubna and Yerzovka.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-10-25
Ukrainian Defense Minister Evgeniy Khmara said Starshield, the military version of SpaceX's Starlink, is functioning normally again after a roughly 10-day period of degraded service that caused drones to lose connectivity at high speeds. Khmara said the military has not received an explanation for the restrictions but is still testing the system. The Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump called Elon Musk on Wednesday asking him to restore the service.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-10-24
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