since february, Amazon Santa Claus plays Ukrainedelivering planeloads, including blankets, toiletries, diapers, food and toys to the war-torn nation and refugees in Poland and other parts of Europe.

But in the long run, what is more important to Ukrainians than the gifts received is what comes out: massive amounts of government, tax and banking data and property subject to destruction and mistreatment should they be obtained by Russian invaders.

Since the day Russia launched its invasion on February 24, Amazon has been working closely with the Ukrainian government to download essential data, move it out of the country in suitcase-sized computer hard drives called Snowball Edge, and then transfer the data to Amazon’s cloud computing system.

“This is the most technologically advanced war in human history,” said Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s 31-year-old deputy prime minister and minister for digital transformation, referring not only to weapons but to data as well. “Amazon Web Services leadership made a decision that saved the Ukrainian government and economy.”

Amazon has invested $75 million so far in its efforts in Ukraine, which includes transmitting data via Snowballs. Fedorov, speaking at a tech conference in Las Vegas this month, called it “invaluable.”

The data, amounting to 10 million gigabytes so far, “represents critical information infrastructure. This is at the heart of the functioning of the economy, tax system, banking and government in general. The data also includes property records whose preservation can help prevent theft of Ukrainian homes, businesses and land.”

Throughout history, “invaders walked in and ran a mock referendum and distributed the land to their friends,” said Liam Maxwell, head of government transformation at Amazon Web Services, the company’s profitable cloud computing arm. “This kind of thing has been happening since William the Conqueror.”

The Odessa Journal reported in June that residents of the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol whose homes were destroyed were taken to the homes of citizens who had fled the area, and had to find those who had left and pressure them to cooperate. Somehow with the Russians.

Maxwell, who is based in London, had already been working with Ukraine for years when it became clear by January that Russia was planning to attack the country.

At the time, Ukrainian law required that the majority of government data and some private data be placed on servers in Ukraine. In February, Parliament amended this law to allow the transfer of information.

On February 24, the day of the invasion, Maxwell met for lunch with Ukrainian Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko at the Ukrainian Embassy in London.

They drew with pen and paper a list of the most essential data: population registry, land and property ownership records, tax payment records, bank records, education records, anti-corruption databases and more. The project involved 27 Ukrainian ministries, 18 Ukrainian universities, the country’s largest K-12 distance education school serving hundreds of thousands of displaced children, and dozens of other private sector companies including Ukraine’s largest private financial institution, PrivatBank.

Early on, Snowball units, in their gray, impact-resistant containers, were transported from Dublin to Krakow, Poland. Maxwell then said that the Ukrainians had “launched these devices across the border” into Ukraine.

After the data is downloaded, much of the information is sent to the cloud over secure networks, and snowballs, loaded with up to 80 terabytes of encrypted data, are shipped to Amazon. For good reason, Maxwell doesn’t want to specify the setting, but he says “It’s a tense moment around the baggage department. This government is in a box, literally.”

Once it’s in the cloud and distributed around the world, everyone breathes easy. “You can’t get rid of the cloud with a cruise missile,” Maxwell said.

The task required speed, organization, and deep technical skill. Maxwell said Fedorov, “a man in a hurry,” ticked all the boxes.

However, Amazon has spent time training Ukrainians on how AWS works. This free training has been extended to refugees in Poland and elsewhere in Europe. There’s an upside to Amazon, in addition to the recognition for its efforts: Maxwell notes that the program equips these refugees with essential technical skills — and in the process expands AWS’s talent base.

Amazon didn’t have to worry about its relationship with Russia in Project Snowball. She doesn’t have one. “We didn’t have anything to stop there,” Maxwell said. “We’ve never invested there. It’s a point of principle.”

Since the project began, other countries have told Amazon they are interested in cloud backups of government data outside the country. Maxwell didn’t say which countries but he did notice a keen interest from East Asia.