Ukraine targets Russian data centers

Throughout twenty twenty-six, Ukraine has stepped up retaliatory strikes against Russian industrial assets. In October, five data centers were targeted, including Russia's largest facility in Balakovo, owned by Sberbank.

Sberbank and Yandex hit in strikes

Sberbank's Balakovo facility was attacked, along with three data centers owned by Yandex. Sberbank First Deputy CEO Alexander Vedyakhin said all systems continued operating normally despite the strike.

“We confirm that the data processing center was attacked. At the same time, all of Sberbank's systems and services are operating normally and without disruption.”

Russia proposes defensive measures

The Digital Development Ministry has proposed countermeasures against drone strikes, including jamming hardware, camouflage, and building subterranean data centers. The document was circulated on October twenty-first, twenty twenty-six.

Three categories of facilities

Russia's plans divide data centers into three categories. K one indicates strategic targets, K two is economic targets, while K three signifies a corporate site. K one targets would likely receive the largest defensive measures.

Protection costs five to ten percent more

Safety measures include shockwave protection for servers, power supplies and cooling systems, plus anti-drone nets and signal jamming. These protections could increase facility costs by around ten percent.

Cost justified against eighty-seven percent loss

Experts warn a data center outage could wipe out facility value by up to eighty-seven percent.

“Even if shelters, grids, sensors and duplication of connections add five to ten percent to the cost of the object, it is not comparable with the loss of eighty-seven percent of its cost and months of downtime.”