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Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s largest data center, operated by Sberbank in the Saratov region, on Wednesday, but a senior bank executive said operations were unaffected.
"We confirm that the data processing centre was attacked. At the same time, all of Sberbank’s systems and services are operating normally and without disruption," Sberbank First Deputy CEO Alexander Vedyakhin told reporters on the sidelines of Russian Energy Week.
"None of the employees were injured," he added.
The strike follows three attacks in a week on data centers of tech group Yandex, signaling an expanding Ukrainian campaign against Russia’s digital and AI infrastructure, which Kyiv says responds to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data sites.
The 55,000-square-meter facility in Balakovo, on the Volga River, is set to host Russia’s biggest supercomputer, scheduled to begin operating in 2027, state news agency RIA Novosti reported in 2024. The site lies next to the Balakovo nuclear power plant and the Saratov hydroelectric plant.
Sberbank and Yandex are Russia’s leading AI developers, with Sberbank’s GigaChat and YandexGPT dominating the domestic market.
Saratov Governor Roman Busargin said drones attacked Balakovo, damaging several residential buildings and killing one person, according to preliminary information.
He said infrastructure facilities were operating normally. Schools and kindergartens in the city were closed, local official Sergey Barulin said.
Drones struck Yandex data centers in Sasovo and Kaluga last week, and the company’s facility in Vladimir was fully shut down after an attack on Oct. 11, causing outages across Russia and neighboring countries.
Yandex said Sunday that its services were gradually being restored, as the Sberbank data center strike widens the campaign.
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