Philadelphia Independent - Ukrainian Drone Strikes Force Russian Firms to Seek Data Centers in Kazakhstan

Russian businesses are accelerating the relocation of computing operations to foreign jurisdictions following a series of Ukrainian drone attacks that struck data center facilities across six regions in October 2026. The disruptions have intensified concerns regarding the resilience of domestic digital infrastructure, prompting firms to seek reliable backup arrangements in neighboring countries as local cloud capacity reaches critical saturation levels.

The attacks targeted installations linked to major technology and financial entities, including Yandex, VK, Sberbank, and Russia's Federal Tax Service. The affected sites were located in Vladimir, Kaluga, Leningrad, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, and Saratov regions, all situated within European Russia. These strikes have raised questions about the ability of domestic infrastructure to withstand further operational disruptions.

Yevgeny Svidersky, vice president of cloud services at ITGlobal.com, told Kommersant on November 10, 2026, that interest in overseas facilities had increased sharply. "Companies are reconsidering their approach to business continuity and are looking for a backup site that does not depend on the network and energy infrastructure of the primary data center," Svidersky said.

Kazakhstan has emerged as a particularly attractive destination for these displaced operations, with Belarus also being considered for hosting artificial intelligence infrastructure and backup systems. Two additional industry sources confirmed to Kommersant that some businesses had already begun transferring workloads, although the scale of these moves remains unclear.

The urgency to secure foreign capacity is driven by severe constraints within Russia's own market. Moscow reportedly possesses only about 50 megawatts of unused data center capacity, a supply sufficient to accommodate approximately two to four large commercial facilities. Kommersant sources estimate that nearly 90% of cloud resources nationwide are already occupied, leaving little room for sudden demand or emergency expansion.

In response to the infrastructure vulnerabilities exposed by the attacks, President Vladimir Putin has directed privately operated data centers to set aside 10% of their capacity for Russian information services. The decree, published through Russia's official legal portal, gives operators ten days to make the required capacity available for possible government use.

Under the new order, owners may continue using the reserved resources themselves unless a government subcommission instructs them to provide capacity for designated domestic information services. Once such an instruction is issued, operators must make the reserved resources available within 24 hours. This arrangement provides the state with a mechanism to redirect privately controlled computing resources during emergencies without permanently transferring ownership of the facilities.

Russian officials have also considered establishing artificial intelligence computing facilities in Belarus and Kazakhstan. Alexey Borshchov, an AI project business architect at Avandok, clarified that these overseas arrangements concern geographic backup rather than wholesale relocation. "In practice, this is about geographic redundancy rather than moving the main infrastructure," Borshchov said. "For example, some market players are already looking for backup sites simultaneously in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan."

Borshchov noted that some cloud providers are discussing with clients the possibility of reserving capacity in friendly countries. However, companies seeking overseas backup capacity face a difficult balance between reducing exposure to domestic infrastructure risks and complying with new state requirements that mandate the retention of significant local resources.

R.Robinson--PI