Episode Details

Silicon Bites Ep422 | 2026-10-15 | Ukraine Hits Russia's Digital Fuel. Trump Said Leave the Fuel Alone. So, Ukraine Hit the Data. Refineries are a slow burn, but Data centres are a spark that could ignite the whole Russian economy and collapse Putin’s regime. Certainly, the implications for his war economy are huge and devastating. Trump told Ukraine to leave Russia's fuel alone. Ten days ago, he said Zelensky had "better damn well stop" hitting Russian refineries. So overnight on the fourteenth of October, Ukraine went after a different kind of fuel. Not diesel. Data. Perhaps a far more combustible accelerant of chaos? ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:Sber confirmation, Vedyakhin statement, complaint surge, 100m+ customers, gov e-services: Yahoo/AFP, 14 Oct 202682 MW, 120,000 servers, 650 km, supercomputer due 2027, Yandex strike dates: Ukrainska Pravda, 14 Oct 2026122.2bn roubles, construction ongoing: Militarnyi; entrance damage, causation not established: Odessa JournalGigaChat / Samokat outages: Militarnyi. Mail.ru, VK, Ozon, Tochka, Rosselkhozbank: social-media reports only, unverified900+ drones: AFP citing Russian MoDSasovo, two of three supercomputers, Kaluga: DCD / Reuters; Ukrainian data centres hit: DCDEnergy ceasefire = refineries only, Ukraine one refinery: Axios via Ukrainska Pravda. 'Better damn well stop', diesel deal: Reuters/AFP. 'We will burn refineries', ~60% capacity: FT via Liga.netOther Sber sites (Yuzhny port, Skolkovo): DCD----------