Third Yandex data centre hit by Ukrainian drones, prompting Russian defence work
Ukrainian drones have struck three Yandex data centres in the Ryazan, Kaluga and Vladimir regions within four days, leaving the Vladimir site fully offline and causing partial outages at the other facilities. The attacks disrupted Yandex's ride‑hailing, food‑delivery, payment and cloud services for users in Russia and in neighbouring Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Serbia, while the company restricted downloads from Yandex Disk to preserve remaining operations.
Yandex reported no injuries and said existing backup systems and distributed computing capacity helped keep many services running. The Russian Digital Development Ministry, together with the Defence Ministry, is working on protective solutions for such critical infrastructure.
How this was covered
- Right-leaning outlets covered this 3h later
- Coverage peaked at 6 outlets in a single hour
Why it matters
The disruptions affect everyday digital services for millions of users across Russia and several neighboring countries.
How this story developed
- Sep 11 Ukraine expands use of unmanned ground robots on the front lines
- Sep 20 The robots have been observed along the entire 1,200‑kilometre front.
- Sep 24 During a gathering with Ukrainian-Americans, Zelensky confirmed an agreement to receive more Patriot missiles, a system vital for countering Russian ballistic attacks. He withheld the identity of the supplying nation and gave no timeline or quantity. The statement came amid his U.S. visit, where he also met President Donald Trump about Ukraine's defense needs. Separate records show the United States is prepared to approve ten German-origin interceptors worth $29.6 million, but delivery dates remain unclear. Overall, the announcement underscores Kyiv's urgent shortage of air-defense munitions as winter approaches.
- Sep 25 Trump communicated to Zelensky about licences for domestic Patriot missile production.
- Sep 25 Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Marija Zakharova called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “bastardo senza gloria”, saying he has lost dignity and is dependent on prohibited substances.
- Sep 27 Operators now use Discord to coordinate the robots with drones.
- Oct 5 Ukraine has added AI‑guided gun turrets and airborne robotic strike units to its arsenal.
- Oct 8 Ukrainian drones hit a Yandex data centre in Ryazan, causing a fire and shutting down operations.
- Oct 8 Yandex Cloud confirmed power‑supply issues and issued a customer advisory following the incident.
- Oct 9 A drone strike in Kaluga disabled several data centre modules.
- Oct 11 Yandex’s Vladimir data centre was shut down after a drone strike.
- Oct 12 The Digital Development Ministry said it is devising protective solutions for critical infrastructure after the series of drone attacks.
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