In brief
Yandex, the Russian equivalent of Google, is grappling with outages after Ukrainian drones struck two of its five data centres in the last 48 hours. The Ryazan‑based Sasovo hub suffered extensive damage, suspending its operations entirely, while a Kaluga centre also saw parts of its infrastructure knocked out. The attacks are part of a tit‑for‑tat war over infrastructure, with Kyiv asserting it is targeting revenue sources that feed Moscow’s war machine. Yandex teams are working round‑the‑clock to restore services, though the timeline remains unclear. No employees were harmed, but the strikes threaten to divert Russia’s resources into repairs and could temporarily shut down AI chatbots and smart‑home devices.
Russian tech giant Yandex is scrambling to keep services running after two of its five data centres were hit by Ukrainian drone attacks within the past two days.
Known as Russia’s Google, Yandex powers the country’s most popular search engine along with a food‑ordering and taxi app used by millions.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes were a response to weeks of Russian hits on Ukrainian data infrastructure.
Both sides have escalated attacks on key infrastructure, with Kyiv claiming it is striking revenue streams that support Moscow’s war effort, suggesting the recent blitz could force Russia to divert resources to Yandex.
The Sasovo hub in the Ryazan region was “seriously damaged” and its operations are now completely suspended, while a Kaluga centre struck on Friday saw part of its infrastructure taken out of service.
Yandex warned that its data centres are critical to its day‑to‑day operations and that it is very difficult to predict when services will be fully restored.
Teams are working day and night to keep the platform alive, but the task is “not a simple one.”
No Yandex employees were injured in the strikes; the Kaluga governor reported nine people injured in a separate drone incident affecting city infrastructure.
The full extent of the service disruption remains unclear, though Russian state news agency Tass said some AI chat‑bot functions were temporarily unavailable and smart‑home devices could also malfunction.
Yandex’s Kaluga data centre is one of the largest in Russia, covering 130,000 square metres and consuming electricity equivalent to 220,000 UK households. The Sasovo facility houses two of three super‑computers used for developing Yandex’s AI models, though it is uncertain whether the machines survived.
Ukraine’s defence ministry confirmed the attacks, noting they could force Russia to divert resources to repair the damaged capacity. Zelensky said Kyiv was responding in a “mirror‑like fashion” to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres.
Last month, a Russian drone hit a business centre in Kyiv, killing four people and damaging a data centre, leaving roughly 100,000 households without internet access. Some Ukrainian firms have already moved data to foreign facilities in response to the strikes.
Moscow justifies attacks by claiming the data centres serve Ukrainian military intelligence, while Ukraine accuses Russia of targeting civilian infrastructure. War‑related strikes on energy infrastructure have intensified ahead of winter, mirroring earlier patterns from the full‑scale invasion that began in 2022.
