Ukraine’s drone strikes spur hasty Russian plans for underground data centers

Russian tech firms are rapidly moving to secure their data centers underground following Ukrainian drone attacks that damaged AI supercomputers and disrupted cloud services for millions of Russian users. The Kremlin is now mandating data center operators to allocate computing resources for emergency state use, and even allowing potential utilization of foreign data centers.

The relentless barrage of Ukrainian drones and missiles against Russian cities has been ongoing for months, with a significant focus on striking Ukrainian data centers since late September. In retaliation, Ukraine has struck military and infrastructure targets across Russia, crippling data centers belonging to Yandex, Sberbank, VKontakte, and the Russian Ministry of Finance.

State-owned telecom provider Rostelcom has floated the idea of relocating some Russian data centers underground, in discussions with mining firm Norilsk. Data Center Dynamics has also reported a proposal for constructing data centers within open-pit coal mines, concealing them with green public parks on the surface.