Key Takeaways
- Ukraine’s established drone supply likely helped it sustain attacks on Russian data centers while preserving missiles for competing missions.
- Russia’s use of faster jet-powered drones and a documented ballistic re-strike introduced different defensive demands, combining shorter response times with the potential for more extensive physical destruction.
- Russia disrupted shared Ukrainian hosting, interconnection and media services, while Ukraine struck specialized computing and future banking capacity. These choices exposed dependencies linking digital services, infrastructure and investment.
- Yandex suffered overlapping losses across three Russian regions, while some Ukrainian operators restored services through overseas capacity. Decentralization needs to be assessed through the independence and usability of replacement capacity.
- Russia’s earlier energy-sector protection efforts suggest uneven preparation for drone attacks. Balakovo ordered protection before being hit, but readiness depended on completing delivery, training and integration before the attack.
Ukraine's data-center strikes exposed the limits of Russia's geographic dispersal. Its drones disrupted Yandex facilities across three regions within four days, while some Ukrainian operators restored services through capacity abroad. The weapon choices also reflected different constraints: Ukraine could sustain attacks with its established drone supply, and Russia employed faster jet-powered drones and, in one documented re-strike, ballistic weapons.
Our analysis indicates that these differences extended to what each country had prepared to withstand. Yandex had publicly described reserves for losing one data center, but several facilities suffered overlapping failures. Meanwhile, protective orders at Sberbank's Balakovo project preceded its attack, leaving a gap between documented awareness and demonstrated readiness. Both cases raise a more specific problem for operators: preparations can address a familiar failure while leaving them exposed to how the next campaign develops.
Why did Ukraine use drones when it also had missiles?
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