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Ukraine’s drone strikes spur hasty Russian plans for underground data centers
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- DeepHorus
Russian technology companies are racing to harden and conceal their data centers underground after Ukrainian drone strikes damaged facilities housing artificial-intelligence supercomputers and disrupted cloud services for millions of Russian users. The moves highlight how the war is exposing the physical vulnerability of Russia’s digital infrastructure. They also show that data centers have become strategic targets in the conflict.
The shift follows months of mutual strikes. The Russian military has bombarded Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles almost nightly and has specifically targeted Ukrainian data centers since late September. Ukraine has retaliated with drone attacks on military and infrastructure targets across Russia. Those strikes have degraded or knocked out data centers operated by Russian tech giant Yandex, state-owned bank Sberbank, social media site VKontakte, and the Russian Ministry of Finance.
State-owned telecommunications company Rostelecom has raised the possibility of moving some Russian data centers underground in talks with Norilsk, the nickel and palladium mining company, according to the Russian newspaper Vedomosti. The industry publication Data Center Dynamics also pointed to a recent proposal by a Russian regional governor to build data centers inside open-pit coal mines. Under that plan, green public parks would be planted above the facilities as camouflage.
The Kremlin is simultaneously tightening control over computing capacity. On November 2, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree ordering Russian data center operators to set aside 10 percent of available space and capacity in case the government requires it, according to the independent Russian news publication Meduza. Moscow is also requiring data center owners to reserve computing capacity for emergency state needs and has authorized the possible use of foreign data centers.
Those measures suggest growing Kremlin concern about the resilience of Russian cloud computing infrastructure during the war. The reported damage to facilities linked to major banks, technology companies, and government bodies shows that outages can affect both commercial services and state operations. The push for underground sites and coal-mine facilities appears aimed at reducing exposure to future drone attacks.
Russian tech companies are now scrambling to adapt. Rostelecom’s talks with Norilsk and the regional governor’s proposal indicate that industry and local authorities are exploring unusual locations for critical computing equipment. The plans remain early-stage, and it is unclear how quickly such facilities could be built or operated.
If Ukrainian drone strikes continue, more Russian data center operators may pursue dispersed or concealed capacity. The government’s 10 percent reserve mandate and its authorization of foreign data centers signal contingency planning at the highest level. The war is thus reshaping not only battlefield tactics but also the geography of Russia’s digital infrastructure.
