Ukraine’s drone strikes spur hasty Russian plans for underground data centers
Russian tech companies are scrambling to harden and hide their data centers underground after Ukrainian drone strikes damaged facilities housing AI supercomputers and disrupted cloud services for millions of Russian users. Meanwhile, the Kremlin is requiring data center owners to reserve computing capacity for emergency state needs and has even authorized possible use of foreign data centers. These consequences of Russia's war against Ukraine come as the Russian military has bombarded Ukrainian
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Russian tech companies are moving data centers underground and the Kremlin is implementing new controls over data center capacity after Ukrainian drone strikes damaged key facilities housing AI systems and disrupted cloud services for millions of Russian users. Russia's previous policy of centralizing internet infrastructure under a few major companies has made the system vulnerable to attack, whereas Ukraine's more decentralized approach supported by foreign tech companies and satellite communications has proven more resilient. The Kremlin has now ordered data center operators to reserve computing capacity for government use and authorized the use of foreign data centers, reversing a previous "Sovereign Internet Law" that banned such offshore infrastructure. This reflects growing concern about how Russia's war with Ukraine has exposed critical weaknesses in the country's digital infrastructure.
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