Sergey "Flash" Beskrestnov, the President of Ukraine's adviser on the development of technological defence directions, stated that even if Russian attacks on the information network infrastructure continue, the entire country will not be left without internet access. In his words, Ukraine is a state with maximally distributed internet channels, which makes it impossible to simultaneously paralyse communications at the level of an entire region or city. This is reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing Beskrestnov's Telegram channel, published against the backdrop of a massive Russian attack on 23 September, during which telecommunications infrastructure facilities were hit, including one of Kyiv's data centres.
Distributed architecture as a survival strategy
Beskrestnov's key thesis is built on an architectural principle embedded in the Ukrainian telecom system over the past few years: traffic and communication nodes are distributed across multiple geographic points rather than concentrated in a few central hubs. This means that even if one or several nodes are physically destroyed, providers are able to reroute traffic through alternative paths. "Only local disruptions are possible, which the providers, as I hope, will quickly eliminate," the President's adviser emphasised. Thus, unlike centralised networks, where the failure of a single node paralyses the entire territory, the Ukrainian model provides resilience against pinpoint destruction.
Practical consequences for users and providers
Despite the general thesis about maintaining availability, Beskrestnov does not hide that the consequences of the strikes are already being felt at the level of end users. During the 23 September attack, one of the capital's data centres was damaged, causing disruptions in connectivity and access to certain services in the networks of providers UTELS and "Pavutyna". Earlier, there were also warnings about possible failures in mobile communications and the internet as a result of round-the-clock Russian shelling of telecommunications infrastructure. Beskrestnov acknowledged that the cost of providing internet services could indeed rise: additional expenses for repairing damaged equipment and restoring communication channels will be factored into operators' tariffs.
Informational context and a call for resilience
Beskrestnov placed a separate emphasis on the psychological aspect: he called on Ukrainians not to succumb to information attacks that, in his assessment, are deliberately aimed at creating a sense of total collapse. "We have already been frightened that there would be no food, no fuel, and now they are frightening us with the disappearance of the internet," the adviser wrote, pointing to a sequential strategy of pressure through scenarios of everyday crisis. In earlier public statements, recorded by Ukrainian media outlets, Beskrestnov also addressed entrepreneurs with recommendations to diversify risks in the face of regular ballistic missile strikes, and urged Kyiv authorities to work out evacuation scenarios in case of large-scale attacks. These statements form an overarching narrative about the need for systematic preparation for a prolonged confrontation, in which telecommunications infrastructure is regarded as a critical element of state sovereignty alongside energy and food supplies.
What this means for citizens and business
For ordinary users, the practical takeaway from Beskrestnov's statements is that a full-scale "disconnection of the country from the network" is not expected in the foreseeable future, however, local and temporary outages in specific areas remain a likely scenario during periods of active shelling. For businesses and government services tied to cloud infrastructure and data centres, the key risk is not the loss of connectivity as such, but the rise in operating costs and the need to duplicate critical systems across multiple sites. The increase in internet service tariffs, warned by the President's adviser, could become an additional burden on households and small businesses in the face of existing economic pressure.
