Yandex Data Centers Hit by Three Drone Strikes in Four Days
Three of the five major data centers operated by Russian technology giant Yandex were struck by Ukrainian drones between October 8 and October 11, halting critical operations and causing widespread disruptions across the company’s digital ecosystem, according to Reuters reports cited by Investor.bg. The most recent strike occurred during the night of October 11, when a drone damaged a data center near the city of Vladimir, east of Moscow, as reported by Club ‘Z’. This followed previous nighttime attacks on October 8 in Sasovo, Ryazan Oblast, and on October 9 in Kaluga, southwest of Moscow, according to Club ‘Z’. The attack in Vladimir on Sunday came hours after US President Donald Trump warned that Ukraine must stop attacking Russian oil refineries so Moscow could supply more diesel to the global market, with Trump having announced on Friday that he reached a deal for a temporary fuel sanctions waiver with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Supercomputers and AI Infrastructure Taken Offline
The consecutive strikes have likely knocked out all three of the company’s core supercomputers, according to assessments by T-Invariant cited by Club ‘Z’ and Investor.bg. The Sasovo facility housed the ‘Chervonenkis’ supercomputer—which ranked 19th in the TOP500 global list after its 2021 launch—alongside the ‘Lyapunov’ machine, while the Vladimir site hosted the ‘Galushkin’ supercomputer, as detailed by Club ‘Z’. Investor.bg reported that these supercomputers are essential for Yandex’s artificial intelligence development, which military analysts such as Oleksandr Kovalenko assert have been adapted for military drone applications. Analysts pointed out that recovering the damaged infrastructure will prove difficult amid ongoing sanctions and a global chip shortage.
Service Outages and Digital Disruptions in Russia
Yandex confirmed that platform services are operating in emergency mode, with the data centers in Sasovo and Vladimir completely shut down, according to Investor.bg and Svoboda Tochka. The outages impacted the company’s search engine, ride-hailing applications, food delivery, smart home devices, and the ‘Alisa’ voice assistant, as noted by Investor.bg. Drivers and daily users reported sudden system freezes, with 69-year-old taxi driver Yevgeny telling AFP via Svoboda Tochka that he had never seen such a widespread failure during the past five years of operation.
Regional Context of Infrastructure Attacks
While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted in an address reported by Investor.bg that recent operations have largely avoided energy grid targets, cross-border infrastructure strikes have escalated. DW.com reported that while Russia has targeted digital infrastructure inside Ukraine—disrupting television signals and streaming services—telecommunications experts such as Oleksandr Khlushchenko emphasized that Ukrainian internet architecture remains decentralized and heavily backed up by European cloud providers like Amazon and Google. In response to the drone impacts on its facilities, Yandex has updated its user agreements to include force majeure exemptions covering drone attacks, according to Club ‘Z’.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which specific Yandex supercomputers were affected by the drone strikes?
According to reports from Club ‘Z’, the strikes damaged the ‘Chervonenkis’ and ‘Lyapunov’ supercomputers at the Sasovo facility in Ryazan Oblast, and the ‘Galushkin’ supercomputer at the Vladimir data center.
When did the three drone attacks against Yandex take place?
The strikes occurred over a four-day span, with the first two hitting Sasovo on October 8 and Kaluga on October 9, followed by the third strike in Vladimir during the night of October 11, as documented by Investor.bg and Club ‘Z’.
What services were disrupted by the data center shutdowns?
Investor.bg and Svoboda Tochka reported that the outages affected Yandex’s search engine, digital payment platforms, cloud services, ride-hailing apps, food delivery services, and the ‘Alisa’ voice assistant.
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