Russian companies seek foreign data center capacity after Ukrainian strikes

Russian companies are increasingly looking to data centres abroad, particularly in Kazakhstan, as Ukrainian strikes add pressure to Russia’s already constrained computing infrastructure. Some firms are moving services overseas, while others want foreign capacity as a backup; the shift matters because data centres support commercial services and parts of Russia’s AI and military technology work.

Ukrainian drones struck three Yandex data centres, a Sberbank facility under construction and a VK data centre between 8 and 18 October, following Russian attacks on Ukrainian digital infrastructure. Russia’s domestic cloud resources are nearly 90% occupied, and Western sanctions make damaged equipment harder to replace. A decree signed by Vladimir Putin on 2 November requires private data centres to reserve 10% of capacity for Russian information resources, which authorities can requisition within 24 hours.