Ukraine’s drone strikes spur hasty Russian plans for underground data centers
· Source: Ars Technica AI
Russian technology firms are accelerating the construction of underground data centers after Ukrainian drone attacks damaged facilities that house AI supercomputers, causing cloud service outages for millions of users in Russia. In response, the Kremlin has ordered operators to reserve computing capacity for state emergencies and has considered using foreign data centers.
The attacks are part of a broader escalation: while Russian forces bomb Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles, they have also targeted Ukrainian data centers with their own drones. Ukraine has retaliated with air strikes on Russian targets, including Yandex facilities, the state bank Sberbank, the social network VKontakte, and the Ministry of Finance.
Under this pressure, state telecom operator Rostelcom has begun talks with the mining company Norilsk to relocate some data centers underground, and a regional governor has proposed placing them in abandoned coal mines, camouflaged by public parks.
This move underscores the vulnerability of digital infrastructure in modern conflicts and highlights how war is forcing a rethink of the physical security of critical data assets. The ability to protect information and essential services will be decisive for the technological resilience of both nations.
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