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Ukrainian Drones Hit Donetsk Data Center and Luhansk Telecom Hub in Back-to-Back Strikes
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Ukrainian drones struck telecommunications facilities in the Russian-occupied cities of Donetsk and Luhansk on October 20 and 21, causing significant damage to infrastructure providing mobile communications, internet access, and data transmission services.
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According to the OSINT monitoring channel Exilenova+, Ukrainian Defense Forces targeted the data center of telecommunications operator Ugletelecom in temporraily occupied Donetsk on October 20.
A separate drone attack followed overnight on October 21 in occupied Luhansk, where a building housing the Lugacom telecommunications operator and the Telecommunications Services Center was struck.
The facility previously operated under the Ukrtelecom name before coming under Russian occupation.
Both buildings reportedly sustained extensive damage as a result of the strikes.
The targeted facilities provide telecommunications services across temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, including mobile connectivity, internet access, and data transmission.
The strikes come amid separate reports of efforts to disrupt Russian military communications infrastructure, including sabotage operations claimed by the Ukrainian partisan movement ATESH near a major data center in Moscow.
On October 21, ATESH reported that its operatives were targeting Russian military communications near IXcellerate, one of Moscow’s largest commercial data centers, in an effort to interfere with air defense coordination and facilitate Ukrainian drone operations.
IXcellerate is a significant component of Moscow’s digital infrastructure, supporting a range of services, including banking applications, payment processing, telecommunications networks, and business operations.
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-72b63a4e0c8c475ad81fe3eed3f63729.jpeg "Photo of Cyril Barabaltchouk")
-a8ae5a8fc0066e7e132e07dbcc491dcd.jpeg "Satellite imagery shows damage to storage tanks at the Novoshakhtinsk Petroleum Products Plant’s oil-loading terminal in Rostov-on-Don following a drone strike on October 10, 2026. (Source: Exilenova+)")