Drones attacked a Sberbank data center under construction in Balakovo, in Russia’s Saratov region, overnight into Wednesday, the bank confirmed. It is the first strike on a Sberbank data center in a series of attacks that damaged Yandex facilities in three regions over the preceding week.
First Deputy Chairman Alexander Vedyakhin confirmed the attack to reporters and said all of the bank’s systems and services were operating normally. The bank said no employees at the site were injured. It did not describe the damage.
Users reported disruptions to Sberbank’s online services and its GigaChat AI service on the outage tracker Detector404, along with problems at several other major Russian platforms. Those reports did not establish a link to the strike.
Saratov Governor Roman Busargin said several homes in Balakovo were damaged and a woman was killed. He said all of the city’s infrastructure was operating normally. Schools in Balakovo cancelled classes and kindergartens closed for the day, and investigators opened a criminal case under Russia’s terrorism statute.
Sberbank, the Saratov regional government and grid operator Rosseti signed a memorandum on the Balakovo project in December 2020, and construction began in 2021. The design calls for at least 3,000 server racks, about 120,000 servers and peak power consumption of 82 megawatts. Regional authorities have put total investment at 122.2 billion rubles over 2021 to 2030.
The facility is being built in stages, and some blocks are already operating. It was planned to host the bank’s IT infrastructure and services for GosTech, a state digital platform. Russian state media reported in 2024 that the site would house the country’s largest supercomputer, scheduled to begin operating in 2027.
Yandex reported damage at data centers in Sasovo, Kaluga and Vladimir after strikes on October 8, 9 and 11. The Sasovo and Vladimir sites stopped operating completely, and Yandex is waiving cloud charges for existing customers through October 31 while it restores services. Sberbank and Yandex are Russia’s leading AI developers, with the GigaChat and YandexGPT models.
Fire Point, a Ukrainian drone and missile manufacturer, posted on social media Wednesday morning: “You didn’t think it would stop with just Yandex, did you?”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses destroyed 902 Ukrainian drones over 19 regions and annexed Crimea between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 493 drones flew toward the Moscow region, and aviation authorities restricted flights at all four Moscow airports overnight. The ministry also said Russian forces struck seven Ukrainian energy facilities and a data center with missiles and long-range drones.
Sberbank is under Western sanctions and has been cut off from the SWIFT messaging network. Russia’s digital development and defense ministries are working on new measures to protect data centers, Kommersant reported.
Sources: Kommersant, The Moscow Times, Kyiv Independent
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By the Control Plane Editorial Team