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Ukrainian drone strikes disrupt three Yandex data centers in Russia
A third facility was hit over the weekend, adding to recent outages affecting cloud and payment services across the country.
13 Oct 2026 2 reads Compiled with AI
Ukrainian drones struck a third Yandex data center in Russia over the weekend. This attack followed two earlier strikes on facilities in the Ryazan and Kaluga regions within four days. The company stated that emergency responders are working at the site but no employees were injured.
Reports differ on the total number of facilities, with some sources citing three out of six data centers hit while others note three out of five. One facility in Vladimir houses a supercomputer called Galushkin which ranks among the most powerful in Russia. Another site in Sasovo reportedly holds two supercomputers used for artificial intelligence training.
The attacks have disrupted Yandex Cloud and various third-party platforms that depend on its servers. Users have experienced problems accessing email, booking taxis, and ordering food through the company's services. More than a dozen external services including retailers and the Russian segment of TikTok were also affected.
The disruptions are widespread because Yandex’s search engine accounts for about 70 percent of the market share in Russia. Cloud computing customers include large grocery chains and household appliance retailers according to independent reporting. One data center in Kaluga has a capacity of approximately 63 megawatts while the three targeted sites combined hold around 115 megawatts.
The Ukrainian government described the attacks as retaliation for Russian strikes on infrastructure in late September. At least six Ukrainian data centers were damaged during that period, disrupting internet access for thousands of households. Officials stated that at least 100,000 homes lost fixed-line internet access following a specific strike on September 23.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged the strikes on data centers in Russia last week. He described the action as a symmetrical response to attacks on Ukrainian digital infrastructure. The president confirmed that Kyiv has relied on cheap long-range drones to reach targets deep inside Russia this year.
In response to the outages, Yandex updated its terms of service to exclude liability for failures caused by drone strikes. This move potentially limits customers' ability to seek compensation for disruptions. The company advised cloud clients to consider alternative recovery plans rather than relying on switching between parts of its infrastructure.
Experts warn that Russia's centralized digital ecosystem has become a wartime weakness due to hyper-centralization. A Russian milblogger noted that the Sovereign Internet Law passed in 2019 complicates establishing backup systems outside the country. Analysts suggest the country is not prepared for a data center war it started with Ukraine.