A data center managed by Russia’s Ministry of Finance and its tax agency experienced damage due to Ukrainian drone attacks. According to media sources Exilenova+ and Astra, the data center of the Federal Tax Service and the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, located in Gorodets, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, was targeted overnight. – Google Maps. “ExileNova+ stated that the facility is one of only two primary data processing hubs for the Federal Tax Service of Russia, both of which function in a geo-distributed manner.” “The potential impact on this facility could possibly hinder the functioning of the state information systems of the Russian Federation.” Gleb Nikitin, the head of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, announced that there were three casualties following a string of drone attacks which harmed “multiple residential properties, a school, and a piece of infrastructure.”.
The Russian government’s revenue service, known as the Federal Taxation Service (FNS), is in charge of ensuring tax compliance. Gorodets, which is the administrative center of Gorodetsky District in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, is a town situated 425km (264 miles) east of Moscow and over 900km (559 miles) away from Ukraine’s border.
The data center in Gorodets, under development since 2012, was allegedly officially opened in December 2015. The site holds data from state registries, including tax databases, and is located in Dubna, Moscow Region, and Yerzovka, Volgograd Region. It has been reported that the finance ministry operates out of these facilities.
The ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia began in 2014 and significantly escalated in 2022 after a large-scale invasion by Russian forces. This conflict has led to a campaign targeting data center facilities in both countries, with facilities around Kyiv operated by various companies being hit by Russian forces in recent weeks.
In the areas surrounding Kyiv, data centers managed by Tenet in Odesa and the RX-Name facility in southern Ukraine’s Nikolaev/Mykolaiv region have experienced attacks. In response, Ukraine has targeted numerous digital assets owned by Russia, such as Yandex and Sberbank’s data centers.
Prior to this, Ukrainian forces had attacked a data center in Russian-controlled Ukraine, located in Prymorsk. Ukraine has recently attacked two telecoms facilities owned by Russian companies in the seized cities of Donetsk and Luhansk. Russian officials are considering various measures to protect their data centers from attacks, such as constructing ‘doomsday’ data centers or locating facilities in abandoned coal mines or neighboring friendly territories.
In addition, several Starlink ground station sites in Europe, such as in Poland, Bulgaria, and Lithuania, have been targeted by arson attacks recently, with officials suspecting Russian involvement.
