Ukraine targeted a Sberbank data center located in the city of Balakovo in Russia's Saratov region with unmanned aerial vehicles. Sberbank, Russia's largest bank and one of its major technology companies, confirmed the attack and reported that its systems continue to operate.
As reported by Reuters, Alexander Vedyakhin, First Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank, stated in a press briefing, "We confirm that an attack was carried out on our data center. However, all of Sberbank's systems and services are operating normally without any interruptions."
The attack on the Sberbank facility occurred during a period when Russia's technology infrastructure has been repeatedly targeted in recent days. It was reported that three data centers belonging to Yandex were also damaged in Ukrainian drone attacks over the past week.
AI INFRASTRUCTURE ALSO ON THE AGENDA
Yandex announced that damage occurred at its data centers in Sasovo, Ryazan region, on October 8, and in the city of Vladimir on October 11, leading to a complete halt in operations. The company also announced that its data center in the Kaluga region was damaged in an attack on October 9.
Following these attacks, there were disruptions in some of Yandex's digital services. Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on October 13 that the issue was being addressed by the government and that efforts were underway to repair the damage.
Ukraine, for its part, argues that such attacks are in retaliation for Russia's strikes on Ukraine's data infrastructure. It is noted that Sberbank and Yandex play a critical role in Russia's domestic artificial intelligence ecosystem.
Sberbank's GigaChat and Yandex's YandexGPT models are among Russia's prominent domestic artificial intelligence projects. The difficulty in accessing advanced hardware due to Western sanctions is considered one of the factors affecting the competitiveness of Russian companies in the field of artificial intelligence.
The targeted data center in Balakovo is reported to span an area of approximately 55,000 square meters and is located near the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant and the Saratov Hydroelectric Station. According to a 2024 report by the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, the facility is expected to house Russia's largest supercomputer, which is planned to become operational in 2027.
News Source: 12punto
