Ukraine Is Hitting Putin Where His Data Lives

Key Points:

• Former President Donald Trump has reportedly undermined Ukraine by facilitating Russian diesel imports and expressing anger at Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities, coinciding with disruptions to Ukraine's access to Starshield, a Pentagon-controlled version of Elon Musk’s Starlink network.
• Ukraine has intensified attacks on Russian data centers, severely damaging major facilities operated by Yandex, Russia’s leading tech company, causing widespread disruption to civilian services and digital infrastructure critical to Russia's war effort.
• Russia’s centralized data infrastructure and strict data-localization laws have made its digital assets vulnerable to Ukrainian drone strikes, while Ukraine’s more distributed digital services have proven more resilient against similar Russian attacks.
• Ukrainian forces continue to make strategic advances in the Donbas region, inflicting disproportionately high casualties on Russian troops, although civilians continue to suffer from ongoing Russian strikes and insufficient Western air defense support.
• Recent U.S. actions, including throttling Starshield signals to Ukrainian drones and withholding intelligence on incoming missile attacks, have raised concerns about waning American support, with Ukrainian President Zelensky openly acknowledging a loss of partnership amid bipartisan outrage in the U.S. Congress.