A series of Ukrainian drone attacks has caused significant disruption to Russian technology giant Yandex, damaging three of its data centers in October, affecting dozens of online services across the country. The strikes have also sharply reduced traffic across the company’s network, raising concerns about the vulnerability of Russia’s digital infrastructure.
Yandex, frequently described as “Russia’s Google,” operates the country’s leading search engine and provides widely used services ranging from ride-hailing and food delivery to cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Its data centers support millions of users and businesses, making the repeated attacks a significant setback for the company’s operations.
According to a report by the BBC, the latest attack occurred on October 8, and continued until October 11, at a Yandex data center in Vladimir, east of Moscow. The company confirmed that the facility sustained infrastructure damage and that all operations had been suspended. No casualties were reported. Yandex was assessing the condition of the site but could not yet determine how long repairs would take.
The attack also disrupted local utilities as Vladimir Region Governor Aleksandr Avdeyev confirmed that the strike caused a fire at the facility. Residents living in nearby houses were evacuated, although residential buildings reportedly escaped damage. Two electrical substations serving approximately 5,000 people were temporarily shut down. Around 80 percent of the electricity supply was restored within an hour, while heating and water services returned to normal as reported by Euronews.
The Vladimir strike followed attacks on two other Yandex facilities in Sasovo, in the Ryazan region, and Kaluga, southwest of Moscow. The Sasovo data center, which housed two supercomputers used in the company’s artificial intelligence development, sustained serious damage and was forced to suspend operations. Parts of the Kaluga facility were also taken offline following a separate drone strike. Preliminary reports indicated that a supercomputer at the Vladimir site may have been damaged as well.
The cumulative damage has had a substantial effect on Yandex’s digital services. The company’s Yandex Cloud service-status page reported at least 84 services offline. Internet monitoring organization NetBlocks also recorded a sharp decline in network activity, with traffic falling to approximately 30 percent of normal levels for Yandex Cloud and 63 percent for Yandex LLC. Such reductions can translate into slower connections, interrupted applications and wider service outages for users.
The disruption is also reflected in automated internet traffic. According to Cloudflare Radar, bot traffic originating from the Yandex network fell to approximately 0.4 percent of its peak HTTP request volume recorded over the preceding two weeks. The decline began on October 8, when the first reported attack on the Sasovo facility coincided with traffic falling to around 57 percent of its previous peak. Activity dropped further following the subsequent strikes.
Ukraine has acknowledged targeting Russian infrastructure, describing the operations as retaliation for Moscow’s attacks on Ukrainian data centers and other critical facilities in Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelensky has characterized the strikes as a reciprocal response, while Kyiv argues that damaging Russia’s technology infrastructure could force Moscow to divert financial and technical resources toward repairs.
The attacks demonstrate how the war is increasingly extending beyond conventional military and energy targets to include the digital infrastructure underpinning economic activity and essential services. They have also unfolded amid diplomatic disagreements between Washington and Kyiv over Ukraine’s strategy of targeting Russian economic assets. US President Donald Trump has urged Ukraine to stop attacking Russian oil refineries, warning that the strikes could affect international diesel supplies and energy markets.