Ukrainian attacks force Russia to deploy counter-drone tech at data centers
The majority of data centers are concentrated in the European part of Russia, frequently targeted by Ukraine.
Drones threaten data centers in Russia. By Cybernews / Shutterstock.
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- Russia has told data center operators to prepare defenses against possible Ukrainian drone attacks.
- The order follows a decree that lets the state take over poorly protected critical infrastructure.
- Officials say data centers matter because cloud services support other critical systems.
- Ukraine is using long-range drones to pressure Russia’s wartime economy and disrupt key infrastructure.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
With Ukraine aggressively expanding its long-range drone campaign against Russian infrastructure, the Kremlin has ordered data center operators to essentially brace themselves against upcoming attacks.
Kyiv, defending against Russian invaders for the fifth straight year, has been launching highly coordinated waves of attacks targeting oil refineries, strategic ports, and military-industrial facilities deep inside Russian territory.
Ukraine has also targeted the infrastructure of Wildberries, Russia’s largest e-commerce marketplace.
The aim is to try to squeeze Russia’s wartime economy. And while Moscow is downplaying the campaign’s impact in public, the Russian government actually seems worried – it has ordered data center operators to deploy protections against drone strikes.
It all has to do with President Vladimir Putin’s presidential decree allowing the state to temporarily take over the operations of critical infrastructure operators that fail to protect their facilities against Ukrainian attacks or take too long to repair damage.
The decree applies to facilities in the fuel and energy sector, industry, communications, transport, and utilities infrastructure, energy, life support, and other sectors.
Now, data centers aren’t considered critical infrastructure in Russia. But according to Kommersant, their operators have explicitly been told that the decree also applies to them.
That’s because data centers and their ability to operate are crucial to other critical infrastructure that relies on cloud services.
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Data center operators must now demonstrate the presence of a comprehensive incident prevention system – from physical security and drone countermeasures to cyber resilience, Kommersant reports.
Most of the larger Russian data centers – the bulk of them are concentrated in the European part of Russia – already have strong cybersecurity defenses. This means they’ll only have to deploy drone defenses. But it’s unclear what they will look like.
Modern counter-drone protection uses a layered mix of radars, sensors, and mitigation tools to safely detect, track, and stop unauthorized unmanned aircraft.
Ukrainian drones, though, regularly slip through Russian defenses. No data from neutral observers of successful Ukrainian drone attacks exists, but as per the Associated Press, Russia claims to have intercepted over 43,300 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory and Crimea just during the summer months of 2026.
Moreover, Kyiv has just requested that the International Civil Aviation Organization warn member states against using Russian airspace, declaring Russian skies unsafe due to the massive volume of active drone operations.
Ukrainian officials have vowed to avoid targeting airliners and civilian deaths. Their plan is rather to put so many drones in the air near Russian airports that they’d have to be completely shut down.
