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A Ukrainian overnight attack reportedly targeted a data center under construction belonging to Russian state lender Sberbank in Balakovo in Saratov Oblast, deputy chief executive Alexander Vedyakhin said on Oct. 14.
Saratov regional governor Roman Busargin said that Ukrainian drones had attacked the region on the morning of Oct. 14, according to Russian state news agency TASS.
Vedyakhin confirmed the attack to TASS, saying that all systems and services of the bank continued operating, and that no employees were injured in the attack. Busargin also said that "all infrastructure facilities" operated normally.
Nonetheless, Russian users reported disruptions to the online services of Sberbank, including its AI service GigaChat, the independent Moscow Times said.
Russian authorities announced construction of the facility in 2020, expecting it to cover about 60,000 square meters (about 645,800 square feet), while Russian state-aligned media Vedomosti said it will house a new supercomputer worth 500 billion rubles.
Ukrainian defense company Fire Point commented in a social media post on Wednesday morning, saying "You didn’t think it would stop with just Yandex, did you?" after it trolled Russian tech giant Yandex on Oct. 12, following reported damage to another of its data centers, disrupting access to its financial services.
Yandex's data center in Vladimir Oblast completely shut down following a reported drone attack on Oct. 11, Russian state news agency TASS said on Oct. 11, citing the company.
The strike marked the third attack on a Yandex data center in four days, following confirmed strikes in Ryazan and Kaluga oblasts on Oct. 8 and 9.
On Oct. 11, Yandex Cloud reported power disruptions in an availability zone identified as being located at the company's data center in Vladimir.
Sberbank remains heavily isolated under Western sanctions, having been entirely cut off from the SWIFT international payment messaging network.
Ukrainian authorities did not comment on the strike.