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Kyiv's Parkovy data center shuts down permanently after Russian strikes

The Parkovy data center in central Kyiv fully ceased operations on October 1 after sustaining critical damage from repeated Russian strikes in September. The operator said on-site restoration is impossible and that client data had been migrated to backup sites in EU countries.

Key points

  • Parkovy data center announced a full shutdown on October 1, citing critical damage from Russian strikes.
  • The operator stated that restoring services at the Kyiv site is impossible.
  • Client data was migrated to backup facilities in EU countries.
  • Russian drones struck the Parkovy Convention and Exhibition Center, which houses the data center, on September 23, 29, and other dates in late September.
  • Between September 23 and 28, Russian strikes damaged at least six Kyiv data centers and facilities of Kyivstar and Ukrtelecom.
  • Roughly 100,000 households in Kyiv and the Kyiv region experienced internet problems as a result of the attacks.

Why it matters

The permanent loss of the Parkovy site removes a major Kyiv data center with no prospect of restoration at the original location. The attack is part of a broader Russian campaign in late September that damaged at least six Kyiv data centers and hit Kyivstar and Ukrtelecom facilities, disrupted television broadcasting, and cut off internet access for roughly 100,000 households. The fact that client data survived only because operators had pre-positioned backups in EU countries illustrates the accelerating shift of Ukrainian digital infrastructure abroad.

What happened

The Parkovy data center, located inside the Parkovy Convention and Exhibition Center in central Kyiv, fully ceased operations as of October 1. The operator announced that the site had sustained critical damage from the Russian strikes and that restoring services on-site is impossible, while confirming that client data had been deployed to backup sites in EU countries. Russian drones had hit the Parkovy Convention and Exhibition Center on September 23, causing significant damage and an initial suspension of operations, with a further strike on September 29 and additional attacks in the surrounding days. Between September 23 and 28, Russian strikes damaged at least six Kyiv data centers — MiroHost, Parkovy, Data Group, UTELS, Pavutyna, and others — along with facilities of Kyivstar and Ukrtelecom, leaving roughly 100,000 households in Kyiv and the region with internet problems. Several Ukrainian television channels, including Novyny.Live, Pryamyi, Armiya TV, Suspilne, and Kyiv24, reported technical problems and broadcasting difficulties; Channel 5 reported retransmission issues.

How Ukrainian sources describe it

All sources in the supplied set are Ukrainian, and they uniformly attribute the damage to Russian strikes, using formulations such as 'after enemy attacks,' 'after Russian strikes,' and 'because of critical damage from Russian shelling.' Coverage centers on the domestic fallout: client data moved to EU backups, the government's allocation of 518.3 million hryvnia from the reserve fund to strengthen backup information systems for state bodies, statements by President Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky on protecting critical infrastructure, and the political symbolism of the Parkovy venue, which frequently hosted events of the Servant of the People party. Ukrainian reporting also highlights the human and media toll — no data center employees harmed, but multiple TV channels experiencing technical problems and roughly 100,000 households losing internet access.

Where reporting differs

The Russian Ministry of Defense publicly confirmed the strikes on Ukrainian data centers and framed them as a 'digital detox,' while Reporters Without Borders condemned the same strikes as war crimes and a threat to access to information — two characterizations in direct conflict. Separately, different sources frame the September 25 announcement by the Parkovy administration either as a temporary suspension that later became permanent or as a more decisive halt.

Background

The Parkovy data center is co-located in the Parkovy Convention and Exhibition Center in central Kyiv, a venue frequently used by the Servant of the People party for events. A week before the late-September strikes, Parkovy had already been reviewing options to migrate IT systems to cloud and backup locations in the EU while keeping production environments in Ukraine. The Ukrainian government allocated 518.3 million hryvnia from the reserve fund to strengthen backup information systems of state bodies, and President Volodymyr Zelensky announced additional measures to protect data centers and other critical communications infrastructure. Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky stated that Ukraine has and is already implementing a number of solutions to protect the internet and communications infrastructure.