‘This effectively sets Russia far behind in the AI race’: Ukraine is wiping out data centers across the border

Ukraine has been targeting key Russian data centers in response to the ongoing full-scale invasion, causing significant disruptions to essential services across the country. Major data centers belonging to Yandex, Sberbank, and VKontakte were hit, impacting cloud services, banking, e-commerce, geolocation, ride-hailing, virtual assistants, and multimodal AI chatbots.

Experts predict it could take months or even years to repair the damage, potentially setting Russia back in its AI development ambitions. Data centers have become targets for both sides in the conflict, with Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid and other critical infrastructure. Ukraine has stored critical data on servers in allied European countries, mitigating the impact of Russian strikes.

However, Russia's strict digital sovereignty policy, requiring all data storage within the country, makes it highly vulnerable to such attacks. The disruptions have forced businesses and individuals to scramble for alternative solutions, with many Russian companies potentially moving their computing assets to Europe.