Thread

Zelensky says Russia has widened attacks to hit Ukraine's data centres

102 points · 147 comments · dabinat

running101 · 1790363869 · focus · HN ↗
Z should hit Russian data centers.
1. onepointsixC · 1790364323 · focus · HN ↗
  Interesting thought, I wonder how easy or difficult it would be to replace data centers for Russia right now.
  1. lostlogin · 1790366337 · focus · HN ↗
    It’s pretty hard to replace a stick of RAM compared to 5 years ago, so there’s that.
2. stickfigure · 1790365761 · focus · HN ↗
  It's a mistake to blindly adopt tit-for-tat. Presumably Z has a list of important targets and is working his way down. Maybe data centers rank, maybe they don't.
  During the Battle of Britain, Churchill ordered a bombing attack on Berlin. Consequently, Hitler ordered Göring to switch from attacking military infrastructure to attacking London. This is widely considered to have been a significant strategic mistake that helped the British win the Battle of Britain.
  1. verdverm · 1790371004 · focus · HN ↗
    I would imagine data centers would have more military value for Ruzzia than Wildberry, but also a significant escalation (which Ruzzia has now seemingly done)
    Data centers are now dual use infrastructure and valid war targets
    nradov · 1790371449 · focus · HN ↗
    Discussion of certain tactics as "escalation" is a bit silly. Both sides have already escalated about as far as they're able — short of using WMDs.
    hollerith · 1790374109 · focus · HN ↗
    Would it not be an escalation if Moscow declares a full general mobilization and sends all conscripts to fight in Ukraine?
    EA-3167 · 1790374559 · focus · HN ↗
    There's a reason they haven't done that, and what exactly are they going to equip all of those conscripts with? An old rifle and a prayer?
    verdverm · 1790376114 · focus · HN ↗
    <a href="https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-september-18-2026/" rel="nofollow">https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian...
    There are rumors about mobilization, but Russia will almost certainly have to if Putin wishes to continue taking land.
    They are growing their drone divisions - and Russia cares less about equipping storm troopers. They still have elite units with good kit, but not necessary for most. Russia fights wars differently from the West, they give up land and blood for time. Works better when they are the one being attacked (eg. napoleon, hitler), but likely applies here in a stalemate like situation.
    Another point of growth for Russia is the ballistic missiles, for which Ukraine has no good answer at the moment :/ We should really be enabling Ukraine's domestic production of a PAC like interceptor, but Trump will forever dislike Zelenskyy, re: the phone call
    EA-3167 · 1790379655 · focus · HN ↗
    There are always rumors about mobilization, but the issue remains that doing so would bring the war home to the Russian middle class in a way that would lead to at best, another massive flight from the country. You can say "They'd shut the borders", but even if Russia were tiny it's also too corrupt to make that stick. It would also be a blow to what's left of their economy and productivity, including war-critical industry.
    All of that would get them... what? Manpower is needed, but nothing would happen with a massed infantry charge except a mass slaughter, no one is doing that on the front anymore. It's all trenches, artillery, drones, infiltration units with high mobility and a low signature. Russia also hasn't magically grown a ton of fuel, vehicles, weapons and logistics so this really would be throwing warm bodies directly into a grave.
    The ballistic missile issue is there you're right, but their current production rate is about ~60 per month and while that's awful, it's not going to change any outcomes. If murdering people in Kyiv and taking out grain silos was going to deter Ukraine it would have happened a long time ago. Ukraine seems to be aware that this is an existential issue for them, which makes sense given what the Russians have done and said to express an intention to ethnically cleanse Ukraine.
    All of that together, and Ukraine's increasing ability to strike deep within Russia, taking out their refinery capacity, denying their shipping, etc... why would they stop? Russia would only adapt their AD network, EW, re-arm, and then keep going. This *already happened in 2014* so it's hardly hypothetical.
    IMO a lot of people here talk a lot about what they know very little about beyond surface-level readings of news articles, all because they're smart enough to code. That's insane.
    verdverm · 1790381305 · focus · HN ↗
    > IMO a lot of people here talk a lot about what they know very little about beyond surface-level readings of news articles, all because they're smart enough to code. That's insane.
    You might reflect on this with some of the claims you have made here w.r.t. perspectives on Russian capabilities. Western experts like WotR, CSIS, and ISW hold different opinions and warn about common under-estimations
    EA-3167 · 1790381967 · focus · HN ↗
    It’s a grinding war that’s taking g countless lives and displacing millions of others, it’s an economic and environmental disaster. I’m not underestimating the ability of Russia to do harm to Ukraine, but one of the more instructive facts is just how slow any movement on the front line has been. Ukraine has substantial external support, Russia does not. None of that changes the ability of Russia to harm Ukraine, but when you consider Ukraine’s emerging capabilities it isn’t hard to see that it’s a two-way street now.
    nradov · 1790386621 · focus · HN ↗
    Russian troops in some forward areas are already literally starving because the logistics system is so broken. There's no point in sending a lot more troops beyond the quantity necessary to replace attribution losses if they can't keep them supplied. Even Russians can't fight indefinitely on an empty stomach.
    subscribed · 1790376293 · focus · HN ↗
    "both sides" - is Ruzzia primarily attacking military targets or civilians, cam you recall?
    We could also check how many children have been kidnapped by the both sides.
    verdverm · 1790376483 · focus · HN ↗
    "Russia’s ‘human safari’ in southern Ukraine is a warning to the world"
    <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/russias-human-safari-in-southern-ukraine-is-a-warning-to-the-world/" rel="nofollow">https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/russias-h...
    Ruzzians hunt and kill babushkas for sport, sickening
    <a href="https://meanovia.com/babushka-meaning/" rel="nofollow">https://meanovia.com/babushka-meaning/
    drysine · 1790416002 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    verdverm · 1790431118 · focus · HN ↗
    the UkrainianWarVideoReport subreddit has video evidence for some cases
    content warning, that subr is not for the faint of heart
    drysine · 1790490481 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    stickfigure · 1790628259 · focus · HN ↗
    Plenty of sources provided in this thread. You either have your head stuck in the ground or you're a paid shill. Go away.
    rasz · 1790432479 · focus · HN ↗
    What more do you want? a direct link to telegram channel of russian drone team murdering civilians?
    here is one boasting about bombing UN humanitarian convoy <a href="https://tgstat.ru/en/channel/@osvedomitell_alex/34456" rel="nofollow">https://tgstat.ru/en/channel/@osvedomitell_alex/34456
    attacks on civilians <a href="https://t.me/habr_bpla" rel="nofollow">https://t.me/habr_bpla
    same <a href="https://t.me/shock3OA" rel="nofollow">https://t.me/shock3OA, this one posted famous video murdering civilain on a bicycle <a href="https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/08/23/8049952/" rel="nofollow">https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/08/23/8049952/
    this one posts torture videos <a href="https://t.me/s/arx_spn" rel="nofollow">https://t.me/s/arx_spn
    drysine · 1790490899 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    mopsi · 1790514126 · focus · HN ↗
    The habr_bpla Telegram channel, which is run by drone pilots from the Russian 18th separate motorised rifle brigade and often posts videos of their drone attacks on civilians in Kherson, was first shared with you years ago, yet the blood remains lukewarm.
    The UN inquiry sums such channels up:
    Russian armed forces have committed murder of civilians as crimes against humanity using drones, concludes the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine in a new report. The Commission examined over 300 publicly available videos of attacks and over 600 text posts on Telegram channels and, where possible, identified victims of these attacks. It interviewed 91 persons from the areas affected by drone attacks, including victims, witnesses, local authorities and medical personnel. From July 2024, Russian forces have recurrently killed and injured civilians in an area stretching over more than 100 kilometres along the right bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Province. The drone attacks have been widespread, systematic and conducted as part of a coordinated state policy, the report said. The drone operators used video feeds transmitted in real time by the cameras embedded in the drones, focused on targets that were visibly civilian, and dropped explosives on them. Hundreds of these video feeds have been regularly disseminated on Russian Telegram channels, some of them with thousands of subscribers, displaying the crimes, as well as text posts announcing further attacks. The scale and intensity of the drone attacks against civilians and civilian objects as well as the destruction of houses and basic infrastructure, the targeting of all means of transport, and attacks against emergency and rescue services, have all rendered the affected areas unliveable and left many residents with no other choice than to flee. The recurrent drone attacks, the widely disseminated videos showing them, and numerous posts explicitly exhorting the population to leave suggest a coordinated state policy, on the part of the Russian authorities, to force the population of Kherson Province to leave the area. The Commission therefore concludes that Russian armed forces may have committed the crime against humanity of forcible transfer of population.
    <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/05/un-commission-concludes-russian-armed-forces-drone-attacks-against-civilians" rel="nofollow">https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/05/un-commissio...
    drysine · 1790544909 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    mopsi · 1790565042 · focus · HN ↗
    I named a source and provided an analysis of its contents, and all I see in return is sealioning.
    Sealioning is a type of trolling or harassment that consists of pursuing people with relentless requests for evidence, often tangential or previously addressed, while maintaining a pretense of civility and sincerity ("I'm just trying to have a debate"), and feigning ignorance of the subject matter. It may take the form of "incessant, bad-faith invitations to engage in debate", and has been likened to a denial-of-service attack targeted at human beings.
    [deleted] · 1790575810 · focus · HN ↗
    [deleted]
    nradov · 1790377012 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes, Russia is bad. The point is that they don't have much capability remaining to escalate beyond what they're already doing. So the war will grind on indefinitely.
    verdverm · 1790377534 · focus · HN ↗
    Russian certainly seems to be escalating by way of presumed attacks against NATO states to test the alliances resolve in attempting to show the response is weak, goal is to undermine NATO's own trust in itself (each other)
    Depending on how you consider escalation, their preference pivot from one-way drones to ballistic missiles can be considered one
    tim333 · 1790428275 · focus · HN ↗
    I've thought that before but they come up with new things quite often.
    ponector · 1790405723 · focus · HN ↗
    Check how many power plants, how many dams, how many book producing facilities, how many theatres are being destroyed by each side. It's clear who has started a new round and continue genocidal war. Russians had tried to erase Ukrainian etnic identity for centuries.
    subscribed · 1790418445 · focus · HN ↗
    Oh, I checked. I think you misread my comment.
    drysine · 1790576109 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    subscribed · 1790580583 · focus · HN ↗
    "Moscov said", oh yeah, so now a statement from the centre of the campaign of lies is treated as an evidence.
    "Orphans evacuated from the war zone", OMG, Goebbels would be proud.
    I'd need to see an actual evidence there were zero children kidnapped. A clear statement from the Ukrainian side (the one acting with integrity when the aggressor was bombing hospitals or hunting civilians with drones) will be sufficient.
    drysine · 1790605018 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    drysine · 1790605324 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    subscribed · 1790607009 · focus · HN ↗
    Oh yes, "Russian claims", Kremlin propaganda tube (TASS) or a Belarusian "source" as the evidence.
    Talk about hilarious.
    Get something of this calibre:
    - <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/09/un-commission-concerned-about-human-impact-russias-systematic-targeting" rel="nofollow">https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/09/un-commissio...
    - <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/russian-authorities-committed-crimes-against-humanity-targeting-civilian" rel="nofollow">https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/russian-auth...
    - <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/22/ukraine-escalating-russian-attacks-civilians" rel="nofollow">https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/22/ukraine-escalating-russi...
    These are based on the extensive evidence, not propaganda.
    Russian genocidal army is extensively targeting civilians and at this point it's not up to the "debate", especially not with the messaging originating at the head of the Ruzzian aggression.
    Look, you're going to be paid for your posts no matter why, don't need to make it look silly, kacáp :)))
    drysine · 1790607784 · focus · HN ↗
    [dead]
    morkalork · 1790390515 · focus · HN ↗
    I'd say the real issue is that datacenters are super flammable (unlike refineries and evidently wildberries warehouses). Russia can use ballistic missiles on Ukraine's DCs but Ukraine has relatively small drones and few flamingo missiles
    stickfigure · 1790434345 · focus · HN ↗
    > I would imagine data centers would have more military value for Ruzzia than Wildberry
    You and I are not informed enough to speculate like this. Presumably the military planners in Ukraine are competent. If they haven't been striking data centers, it's almost certainly because they prioritize other targets. It won't be because they haven't thought of it or are afraid to do so.
  2. EA-3167 · 1790374515 · focus · HN ↗
    Sounds like Russia should make the first move to de-escalate given their role in starting this invasion and spending so much time striking civilian Ukrainian targets.
  3. subscribed · 1790376187 · focus · HN ↗
    Russians terrorists are already primarily targeting schools, shelters, residential buildings, energy infrastructure, etc.
    One of the first acts of was a destruction of the dam.
    "It's a mistake to blindly adopt tit for tat" - what are they going to do, bomb some datacentres or power plants (again)?
    I hope Ukraine is going to bring a major inconvenience to Russia before this winter. Otherwise kacaps are going to continue supporting this outrageous aggression.
3. boardwaalk · 1790366222 · focus · HN ↗
  Is anybody calling him Z or is this just laziness? It seems in bad taste anyways, given Russia is basically using Z as their swastika...
  1. tim333 · 1790428172 · focus · HN ↗
    I've typed Z before. Kind of laziness / nick name.
4. ndsipa_pomu · 1790427751 · focus · HN ↗
  Attacking Russian supply lines and logistics capability seems to be far more effective in stopping the Russian ability to wage war. Attacking data centres is likely only going to marginally hurt their economy.

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