Russia needs a “doomsday” data center as repeated Ukrainian attacks weaken its digital infrastructure, Rostelecom vice president Valeriy Ermakov has said.

Speaking at the RBC Tech forum, as reported by the Russian news organization RBC, Ermakov said the concept of a “doomsday” data center was once “unimaginable,” but is now a real necessity.

Speaking in light of recent drone threats from Ukraine, and specifically citing multiple strikes on data centers owned by Yandex, Ermakov said that the current situation has become characterized by a “threat and disruption model,” where infrastructure built in a centralized way for economic efficiency has become a vulnerability.

“A so-called ‘doomsday’ data center is a must-have, because backup is what allows any service provider to recover quickly,” Ermakov said.

According to Ermakov, Russian customers are being forced to re-evaluate threat models and distribute services across multiple sites.

In recent weeks, Russian officials have been making plans to deploy data centers in friendly neighboring countries. While no official reason has been given for this, speculation points to low grid capacity in Russian cities and knock-on effects from the Ukraine war.

Ermakov said Russia was “returning to the point where we distribute our services as widely as possible.”

In further comments, Ermakov said Russia’s telecommunications infrastructure is “heavily congested” and would require upgrades due to the deterioration of old fiber optic cables.

Compounding these challenges are significant resource shortages in Russia, which Ermakov said will become an obstacle to future technology transitions.

Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russian digital infrastructure in recent weeks. The latest attacks on Russian data centers have cut traffic from bot HTTP requests originating in Russia.

Conflict between Ukraine and Russia has been ongoing since 2014, with significant escalation in 2022. Throughout the conflict, Russia has attacked multiple Ukrainian data centers.