Russian tech giant Yandex is facing significant challenges after two of its five data centers were struck by Ukrainian drones over the past few days, leading to suspended operations at one and partial damage at another. The company warns that it's difficult to predict when services will resume, though some AI chatbot functions have already been temporarily unavailable. President Volodymyr Zelensky justifies these attacks as a response to Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centers, suggesting they aim to disrupt Russia’s war efforts by targeting its revenue streams. Both sides accuse each other of attacking civilian infrastructure.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-09,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
On October 8, drones struck a major Yandex data center in the Ryazan region of Russia, causing a fire and forcing the company to suspend operations at one site. The attack came a day after another Ukrainian drone strike on a different Yandex data center in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow. These strikes targeted two of Yandex’s five data centers, which are crucial for the company's AI development efforts, including its YandexGPT model. Ukraine claimed these attacks were aimed at disrupting Russia's technological infrastructure supporting its war effort. Yandex warned customers to use alternative zones due to issues with electricity supply in affected areas. Moscow has previously targeted Ukrainian data hubs, escalating cyber and physical warfare between the two nations over critical IT infrastructure.
Written for “Drones Attack Yandex Data Center” on 2026-10-09,
grounded in this article and the 3 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political
question, so it has no leaning score. That is an
answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly
or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it
anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political
position.
No political leaning scored for article 68911 · logged 2026-10-09
- Published
Russian tech giant Yandex has said it was struggling to maintain services after two of its five data centres were struck by Ukrainian drones in the past two days.
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two → publish → days
Often dubbed "Russia's Google", the company runs the country's most popular search engine, as well as a food-ordering and taxi app used by tens of millions of people.
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company → dub → people
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks were in response to weeks of Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centres.
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attacks → say → centres
Both sides have stepped up attacks on infrastructure in recent months as the war between the two drags on.
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war → step → two
Kyiv says its strikes are aimed at revenue streams for Moscow's war machine, and that the latest attacks could force Russia to divert resources to Yandex.
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attacks → say → Yandex
Yandex said that its data centre in Sasovo, in the Ryazan region, had been "seriously damaged as a result of a drone attack" overnight into Thursday, with its operations "completely suspended".
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operations → say → Thursday
Another data centre in Kaluga, a region south-west of Moscow, had also been attacked on Friday morning, it said, with part of that site's infrastructure "taken out of service".
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part → attack → service
Yandex said on Friday that its data centres were "critical" for the normal operation of its services and that it was "very difficult to predict" when they would be back online.
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they → say → services
It said teams were working "day and night" to keep services running, but "unfortunately it is not a simple task".
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it → say → services
The tech giant said none of its employees had been injured in the strikes.
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none → say → strikes
The regional governor in Kaluga said nine people had been injured in a drone attack on the city's infrastructure.
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people → say → infrastructure
The exact scope of the disruption to the company's services is unclear - though it told state news agency Tass that some of its AI chatbot functions were temporarily unavailable, while its smart home devices may also experience problems.
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devices → tell → problems
Yandex previously said its Kaluga data centre was one of Russia's largest - covering an area of 130,000 sqm (1,399,000 sq ft) and consuming as much electricity annually as 220,000 UK households.
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centre → say → households
Its data centre in Sasovo, meanwhile, houses two of three supercomputers used to develop the company's AI model.
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centre → house → model
It is unclear whether the supercomputers survived the attack.
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supercomputers → survive → attack
Ukraine's defence ministry confirmed the data centre attacks, saying they could "force Russia to divert resources to repair the damaged capacity".
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they → confirm → capacity
Zelensky said Kyiv was responding to similar Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres in a "mirror-like fashion".
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Kyiv → say → fashion
Last month, a Russian drone hit a business centre in Kyiv, killing four people and damaging a data centre.
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drone → hit → centre
Due to the strikes, about 100,000 households in Kyiv and the region suffered internet outages.
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households → suffer → outages
Some Ukrainian firms have already begun moving data from damaged servers to facilities abroad.
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firms → begin → facilities
Moscow has justified the attacks by saying the data centres were used by Ukrainian military intelligence.
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centres → justify → intelligence
But Ukraine accuses it of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure.
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Ukraine → accuse → infrastructure
Russia has stepped up strikes on energy infrastructure ahead of the winter, as it has done in previous years of the full-scale invasion, which began in 2022.
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which → step → 2022
The Aporia
