Ukrainian strikes on data centers on Russian territory were aimed at disrupting military planning and communications services. There were also reports of another type of disruption - customers waiting for their dinner via food delivery apps were affected. This is what Antoineta Russi writes for "Politico".
Kiev hit three data centers of "Yandex" - in Sasovo, Kaluga and Vladimir. This led to delays and outages for thousands of businesses and households that rely on the company's cloud infrastructure, including e-commerce platforms, digital payment systems, as well as food delivery and transportation apps. Yesterday, Ukrainian drones also targeted a large data center of "Sberbank" (Sberbank) in the Saratov region, although a senior bank official said it had not affected its operations.
After the attacks, Kiev said Moscow had already repeatedly attacked Ukraine’s digital infrastructure.
“The Ukrainians wanted to show the Russians that both sides can play in this game,” a senior official familiar with the operation told Politico, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
These attacks and retaliations mark a new front in the war: the infrastructure that supports the digital economy.
Attacks on buildings that provide computing power are tantamount to striking a power plant that supplies electricity, heat and fuel — resources on which both the military and civilians depend. This could weaken the enemy's military efforts, but at the same time it is capable of paralyzing everyday life.
According to experts, the cost of their restoration by Russia will be extremely high, since these centers require scarce materials that must be imported from abroad.
"Procuring a large amount of equipment to replace what was destroyed will not be an easy task," notes Oleg Shakirov, a researcher in the field of cyber policy and international security.
According to him, most of the hardware must be imported, and the process is further complicated by high global demand and sanctions imposed on Russia.
"Honestly, no one knows what the real damage is. With two data centers still down, "we can assume the damage is significant," Shakirov added.
Joseph Jarnacki, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), warns that making data center attacks a common practice could lead to a number of new and dangerous consequences.
"These attacks likely violate international humanitarian law and pose a serious risk, especially at a time when populations around the world are increasingly relying on digital services," he told "Politico".
When servers become targets
Data centers have come under fire in recent armed conflicts. During the US-Israeli conflict with Iran earlier this year, drone attacks hit three Amazon Web Services (AWS) sites in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Since data centers can serve both civilian and military purposes, the legal status of such attacks is far from clear.
Kubo Machak, an expert in international humanitarian law, points out that for a data center to be designated as a military objective under the Geneva Conventions, it must meet two conditions: it must make an effective contribution to military operations and its destruction must provide a "concrete military advantage".
"If it is known that military intelligence is stored there or that the data center is used to power artificial intelligence tools for military purposes," Machak explains, then there may be grounds for considering it a military objective. target.
Following the recent attacks on Yandex data centers, users on the social network X reported a sharp drop in automated bot activity - including from accounts associated with pro-Russian and pro-Trump theses, as well as those of the German far-right party "Alternative for Germany" (AfD).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on this situation, saying that the strikes on Russian data centers had made social networks less "toxic" - although independent researchers and national research institutes have found no evidence that these actions have led to a concrete disruption of Russian disinformation campaigns.
In Kubo Macak's words, even if a data center were used, "say, to run trolls or "bot farms" to interfere in elections abroad... that would not be a sufficient justification." In other words, hosting propaganda bots alone does not make a data center a legitimate military target.
The issue of dual-use facilities is often seen in the context of strikes on energy infrastructure, a practice that has been common during the war between Russia and Ukraine. On October 10, US President Donald Trump called on Ukraine to stop attacks on Russian oil refineries, citing these attacks as the reason for the rise in fuel prices. He subsequently called on both sides to stop attacks on energy infrastructure, although the existence of any ceasefire agreement remains debatable.
As data centers become increasingly central to national economies, they will also become increasingly significant targets. A senior NATO official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the matter, told "Politko" that data centers are already being considered as potential targets and that the Alliance is taking their vulnerability into account in its planning.
NATO allies are aware that in the event of a conflict, their data centers could be attacked, the official noted: "In a clash, they would be a target."
Source: news.bg