Ukrainian drones have attacked Russia's largest data center, owned by Sberbank. The facility is located near the city of Balakovo in Saratov region, on the Volga River, and the attack did not disrupt banking and technology systems, Reuters reported.
„We confirm that the data center was attacked. At the same time, all Sberbank systems and services are functioning normally and without interruptions,” said Alexander Vedyakhin, the first deputy chairman of the bank’s board of directors.
The facility is to house a Russian supercomputer
The data center covers an area of 55,000 square meters. According to the Russian state agency RIA Novosti, from 2024 it is intended to house the most powerful supercomputer in Russia, the operation of which is to begin in 2027.
The complex is located near the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant and the Saratov Hydroelectric Power Plant. There is no confirmed data yet on whether the attack caused material damage to computing equipment or other critical infrastructure.
Attack follows attacks on Yandex centers
The attack on Sberbank followed three attacks in the past week on data centers of the Russian technology company Yandex. Neither Yandex nor Sberbank reported whether supercomputers were damaged in these actions.
Ukraine presents the strikes on similar sites as a response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data storage and processing infrastructure. Reuters did not provide data on the interruption of Sberbank's services after the attack.
Sberbank and Yandex are the main Russian developers of artificial intelligence technologies. The bank is developing the GigaChat language model, and Yandex - YandexGPT. The two companies have invested significant resources in the development of these systems, but according to an estimate cited by Reuters, they are up to nine months behind the leading developers in the United States and China.
Among the reasons is the limited access to state-of-the-art processors and other high-performance computing equipment due to Western sanctions. It was not announced when additional information about the condition of the center or possible damage would be provided.
Sources: news.bg, internazionale.it