Ukrainian drone attacks cripple Yandex's supercomputers, threatening Russia's AI progress

Drone attacks by Ukrainian forces on October 7-11 targeted Yandex's data centres in the Ryazan, Kaluga and Vladimir regions, disabling the Chervonisk, Lyapunov and Galushkin supercomputers. The facilities relied on free-air cooling, allowing smoke and soot to infiltrate server boards and cause short-circuits. Specialists estimate that thorough cleaning will take up to six months, while sourcing replacement NVIDIA accelerators could extend recovery to one or two years due to sanctions and global shortages.

Yandex's Search and AI division, which contributes the bulk of its adjusted EBITDA, now faces a severe loss of computing capacity, jeopardising projects such as YandexGPT and Alice AI. The damage may cause Russia's AI capabilities to fall behind Kazakhstan as early as the upcoming top-500 ranking update. Officials and industry experts warn that Russian data-centre design, lacking robust fire protection and liquid-cooling upgrades, left critical infrastructure vulnerable to wartime attacks.