When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine broke out in February 2022, the nation faced not only a physical attack but also a digital one, with cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure and sensitive government data.
Ukraine’s response was swift and calculated, implementing a wide approach to secure its digital assets. Despite facing a quite challenging cybersecurity landscape along with cyberattacks conducted with or just before the invasion (DDoS attacks in mid-February or Russian wiper malware), Ukraine has shown remarkable resilience in this field.
By relocating critical servers to secure locations, collaborating with global tech giants for cloud backups, and fortifying cybersecurity protocols under relentless pressure, Ukraine’s efforts became a masterclass in coordinated response to cyberattacks. How Ukraine implemented a systematic process and undertook to protect its data from destruction and ensure its digital sovereignty?
Relocating Critical Data to Secure Locations
As Russian forces advanced in the early days of the invasion, Ukraine’s government recognized that physical servers hosting sensitive data, ranging from citizen registries to military intelligence, were vulnerable to destruction or interception. The first critical step was to relocate these servers to secure, undisclosed locations, both within Ukraine and abroad.
Teams of IT specialists, often working under the threat of airstrikes, physically moved hardware to fortified bunkers or smuggled it across borders to allied nations like Poland and Lithuania.
This rapid escapade ensured that essential government functions, such as tax systems and pension databases, remained operational even as cities like Kyiv were harshly bombarded. By decentralizing its data infrastructure, Ukraine mitigated the risk of a single point of failure, laying the foundation for digital continuity in a war zone.
Leveraging Cloud Migration with Global Tech Allies
Ukraine turned to the cloud to safeguard its data, forging partnerships with big names like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Recognizing that local servers could be compromised, the government accelerated the migration of critical datasets to secure cloud platforms hosted outside Ukraine’s borders. These collaborations, facilitated by Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, enabled the country to back up a critical mass of essential services, from healthcare records to electoral databases in real time. For instance, Microsoft provided Azure cloud credits and technical support to relocate government services, while Amazon’s AWS infrastructure helped preserve more than 10 petabytes of essential data from ministries, universities and private companies.
Additionally, through the SUCHO initiative, AWS also supported the preservation of cultural heritage archives. This strategic pivot not only protected data from physical and cyber threats but also allowed Ukraine to maintain public services online, ensuring citizens could access vital resources even in occupied territories. Ukraine’s experience shows that it is possible to implement adaptable and forward-looking strategies when facing extreme digital threats. Its example should encourage the bloc and, by extension, the international community, to invest more heavily in cybersecurity technology, expertise, and cooperation, particularly in information sharing and mutual support. With its hard-won experience, Ukraine now has the potential to emerge as a hub for innovation in information security and cybersecurity, offering new models and solutions for a world where digital resilience has become as critical as collective self-defence. However, without being ungrateful, relying on foreign cloud providers carries real risks for Ukraine’s digital sovereignty.
To secure the future, strong data frameworks in place and independent infrastructure will be needed to ensure national control over its critical digital assets. That said, in a time of war, survival comes first—full digital sovereignty will follow.
An article written by Jaime Ruiz Rivas and Jaime Blanco Morato
