‘They started it. We’re responding.’ Putin warns Ukraine over strikes on energy facilities, warehouses, and data centers

Vladimir Putin told a congress of the business association Business Russia that Ukrainian strikes on Wildberries and Ozon warehouses caught Russian authorities off guard, saying officials hadn't anticipated such attacks though perhaps they should have. He framed Russia's own strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities and data centers as retaliation, saying 'they started it, we're responding,' and dismissed Ukraine's recent strikes on Russian oil refineries as insignificant.

It was Putin's first public comment on data center strikes, though it remained unclear whether he meant Ukrainian hits on Yandex and Sber or Russian strikes on Ukrainian providers like Tenet in Odesa. Russia struck Ukrainian data centers in September and threatened a 'digital detox,' and continued hitting Ukrainian infrastructure, including a Kyiv bank facility, in October. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the government was discussing the data center attacks, and Putin separately held a cybersecurity meeting without mentioning the strikes publicly.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.