Sberbank says Ukrainian drone strike hit Russia’s largest data centre without disrupting services
Sberbank reported normal operations after a Ukrainian drone strike on its Balakovo data centre, following three attacks on Yandex facilities in the past week.
Balakovo, Russia. Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s largest data centre, owned by Sberbank, First Deputy CEO Alexander Vedyakhin said on Wednesday. He told reporters that the attack had caused no interruption to the company’s systems or services.
Data centres targeted
The Sberbank facility is in the Saratov region, on the Volga River. The strike came after Yandex, a Russian technology group, had three of its data centres attacked over the preceding week.
Ukraine says the strikes are a response to Russian attacks targeting Ukrainian data facilities.
Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank and technology company, and Yandex have not disclosed whether the Ukrainian attacks damaged any supercomputers.
Supercomputer planned for Balakovo
In 2024, Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the Balakovo centre, which occupies 55,000 square metres, would house the country’s largest supercomputer. Its launch is scheduled for 2027.
The facility stands beside the Balakovo nuclear power plant and the Saratov hydroelectric power plant.
Russia’s main AI developers
Sberbank and its principal domestic competitor, Yandex, lead artificial intelligence development in Russia. Sberbank’s GigaChat and YandexGPT share the domestic market.
Despite substantial investment in developing their models, the two companies trail leading developers in the United States and China by as much as nine months. Western sanctions contribute to that gap by making it harder for Russia to obtain the most advanced hardware.
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