When Russia began dismantling Ukrainian data centers and telecommunication infrastructure, it appeared unprepared for the ensuing digital retaliation. Within days, three of Russia’s largest data centers, owned by Yandex, were hit by Ukrainian drone strikes, causing widespread outages.

Pro-Kremlin bloggers now warn that Russia’s centralized digital economy could face collapse, as the country lacks readiness for a “data center war” it initiated. Ukraine’s decentralized digital services might prove more robust, according to the warnings.

Russia launched its drone strike campaign against Ukrainian data centers and mobile networks in late September, disrupting internet and mobile services for up to 100,000 households in Kyiv. The strikes were part of a wider campaign targeting power grids, transportation hubs, and residential buildings.

In a “symmetrical response,” Ukraine struck back, damaging a data center in the Sasovo region southeast of Moscow on October 8. This center houses two of Yandex’s supercomputers, used in training its AI model YandexGPT, which are based on Nvidia A100 GPU chips.

The Chervonenkis supercomputer has a computing performance of 29.42 petaflops and ranks 101 on the Top 500 List, while the Lyapunov supercomputer is rated at 20.03 petaflops and ranks at 161. The extent of damage to these supercomputers remains unclear.