Ukrainian drone strike on Sberbank data center triggers nationwide service outages

Data from Sboi.rf and Downdetector shows a sharp rise in complaints about Sberbank services after a Ukrainian drone targeted the bank's data centre in Balakovo, Saratov region, on the night of October 14. Users in major cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as the Novosibirsk region, reported that the bank's website would not load, the mobile app failed to open, and payments could not be processed. The outage ripple effect also impacted other Russian internet services, including Mail.ru, Kontur, Ozon, MegaFon, VKontakte and the local provider SkyNet St. Petersburg.

Alexander Vedyakhin, Sberbank's First Deputy Chairman, confirmed the attack but insisted that the bank's operations were still functioning normally. The incident follows recent Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centres, which caused similar disruptions across Russia and in several neighboring countries.