Russian Authorities Push for Underground Data Centers After Ukrainian Drone Strikes

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent decree has introduced a significant policy shift, allowing a special government commission to authorize the use of foreign data centers in consultation with the Federal Security Service (FSB). This move departs from the previously enacted “Sovereign Internet Law,” which strictly prohibited Russian companies from utilizing cloud computing infrastructure located outside the country’s borders.

Russia’s pursuit of a sovereign and increasingly closed internet has led to a highly centralized network dominated by a few domestic tech giants, such as Yandex. However, this hyper-centralized model has proven highly vulnerable during wartime. Ukrainian drone strikes targeting key Russian data centers have caused widespread outages, disrupting popular digital services, including payment processing, banking, e-commerce, video streaming, ride-hailing, and food delivery applications.

The impact of these strikes has been severe for domestic tech leaders; Yandex was forced to relocate all three of its primary supercomputers after Ukrainian drones targeted the AI data centers housing them, according to reports by Meduza.

In contrast, Ukraine’s decentralized digital infrastructure has demonstrated remarkable resilience against years of Russian drone and missile assaults. The Ukrainian government has actively worked to disperse critical energy and telecommunications nodes, burying supporting infrastructure underground to protect it from ongoing attacks.

This robust defense has been significantly bolstered by support from major U.S. technology companies. Shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Amazon and Microsoft assisted Ukraine in migrating government resources and essential digital services to cloud regions across Europe. Additionally, the Ukrainian government has utilized SpaceX’s Starlink satellite terminals—funded by the United States and European allies, including Poland and Germany—as a vital backup communications network.

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