The destruction of Ukrainian data centers could cause significant damage to the country’s economy, small and medium-sized businesses and media operations, but it would not shut down key government digital services, according to economic analyst Ivan Lizan.
Lizan said Ukraine had prepared for such a scenario by moving a substantial part of its government digital infrastructure abroad. In February 2022, Kiev adopted legislation prohibiting citizens' personal data from being stored outside the country, but the restrictions were eased the following month to allow information to be hosted on foreign servers.
During the first six months of the special military operation, services belonging to more than 60 Ukrainian government agencies, including the National Bank, were transferred abroad. As a result, Lizan argued that strikes on domestic data centers would not disable major state platforms such as Diia.
Large Ukrainian companies are also less vulnerable because many already store their data on foreign servers. Lizan cited PrivatBank and Amazon among examples of businesses relying on infrastructure outside Ukraine.
Small and medium-sized Ukrainian businesses face greater risks. According to Lizan, many of them likely kept their data in domestic data centers because doing so was cheaper and easier.
Ukrainian television has already experienced disruptions. Lizan said several channels that relied on domestic data centers recently went off the air. He expects them eventually to restore broadcasting by renting European capacity, although this would be more expensive and could involve delays.
Lizan said strikes alone would not completely destroy Ukraine’s digital infrastructure, but the scale of the damage would depend on how persistently data centers are targeted. He estimated that Ukraine has slightly more than 30 such facilities, with 25–27 located in Kiev, and claimed that around ten have already been knocked out.