Data Centers Become Targets in Wars in Ukraine, Russia and the Middle East

The war between Russia and Ukraine has come for data centers.

Forces from both sides have recently ramped up attacks on infrastructure that serves as the backbone to web-connected services and artificial intelligence systems.

The Russian military hit a data center in Kyiv and other telecommunications sites, while Ukraine struck back by damaging three major data centers operated by the technology giant Yandex, often referred to as Russia’s Google, and a data center run by Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank.

The targeting of data centers is a relatively new phenomenon in the war, now in its fifth year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a speech on Monday that the targeting of Yandex was “responding to Russia’s operation against our data centers.”

The strikes on digital infrastructure have come on top of intensifying attacks on energy installations, including a recent Russian barrage of dozens of ballistic missiles that cut power to 600,000 people in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries, one of the factors pushing global diesel prices to record highs, have drawn a rebuke from President Trump, who has pushed for Ukraine to limit its strikes as energy-driven inflation accelerates ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/15/business/russia-ukraine-data-centers-war.html