Sberbank Data Center in Russia's Saratov Region Struck by Ukrainian Drone Attack

Sberbank has confirmed that one of its data centers was struck by a Ukrainian drone attack this week, marking the latest in a series of strikes targeting Russian digital infrastructure as the conflict between the two countries continues to escalate.

The attack hit Sberbank's facility in Balakovo, Saratov Region, according to Russian news agency Tass. Alexander Vedyakhin, Sberbank's first deputy chairman of the management board, confirmed the incident: "We confirm the attack on the data center. All Sberbank systems and services are operating normally and without interruption. No employees were harmed." The company did not disclose the extent of damage to the facility, though local social media posts appeared to show a damaged building at the site.

The Balakovo data center is a significant piece of Sberbank's infrastructure. Announced in 2020 and beginning construction in 2021, the 55,000-square-meter (592,000-square-foot) facility is located near the Balakovo nuclear power plant and the Saratov hydroelectric power plant. The site was being built out in phases through 2030 and is expected to total more than 80MW of capacity at full build-out. Sberbank, a Russian majority state-owned banking and financial services company headquartered in Moscow, also operates data centers in the Yuzhny port and Skolkovo areas of Moscow, with the Skolkovo facility offering up to 30MW of capacity since its launch in 2017.

The strike on Sberbank's facility is part of a broader pattern of attacks on data center infrastructure in the region. Yandex, one of Russia's largest technology firms, has seen three of its five data center facilities hit by Ukrainian strikes in the past week alone. The company's Vladimir data center near Moscow was struck over the weekend, while its Sasovo facility was hit on Thursday and its Kaluga facility on Friday. In response, some customers previously hosted in the affected Yandex facilities are being transferred to services hosted by Selectel, K2Cloud, and VK Cloud. The Russian Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Digital Development are reportedly discussing joint measures to protect Russian data centers in the wake of these attacks.

The implications for the data center industry are significant. The targeting of commercial and financial data infrastructure in an active conflict zone raises critical questions about the resilience and security of data centers in geopolitically sensitive regions. As both Russian and Ukrainian forces continue to strike data center facilities — with numerous Ukrainian facilities operated by companies including Parkovyi Data Center, MiroHost, Datagroup, Vodafone Ukraine, De Novo, Cosmonova, Omega Telecom, Ukrsibbank, and Ukrtelecom also hit in recent weeks — the conflict has underscored the vulnerability of digital infrastructure to military action. Earlier this year, Ukrainian forces also struck a data center in Russian-occupied Prymorsk. The ongoing strikes signal a new dimension in modern warfare, where data centers are increasingly treated as strategic assets and legitimate military targets, forcing operators to reassess security protocols and contingency planning in conflict-prone regions.