WARTIME ECONOMY UNDER FIRE: Russian Drones Target Ukraine's Data Centers...

On September 23, a Russian Geran-5 jet-powered drone hit a Kyiv office building housing data centers and internet backbone infrastructure, the opening salvo in an intensifying campaign against Ukraine's telecom networks. Ukraine's air defenses now intercept only 50-60 percent of these faster jet drones, compared to over 85 percent of slower Iranian-supplied Shahed drones—a gap Russia is exploiting systematically. The strikes have knocked out service for hundreds of thousands and threaten the banking and payment systems Ukraine depends on to sustain both its economy and its defense against invasion.