Yandex suspends data center operations after drone strikes in Russia

Oct 9, 9:06 PM2 min readCovered by 5 outlets

Drafted by AI from the sources below, fact-checked by the Ajako Taja Editorial Team · How we use AI

AI Summary

Russian internet giant Yandex halts operations at its Sasovo data center and reports damage in Kaluga following drone strikes targeting tech infrastructure.

Russian technology giant Yandex has taken a major data center offline in the Ryazan region and reported damage at a second facility in Kaluga following drone strikes.

A Yandex data center in Sasovo, Ryazan, was seriously damaged and its operations completely suspended after a drone strike overnight into Thursday caused a fire. According to BBC News, this facility houses two of the three supercomputers used for the company's AI models. International reported that Yandex is currently assessing the damage and cannot yet confirm if the Sasovo equipment can be restored.

A second strike occurred on Friday morning at a data center in Kaluga, south-west of Moscow, taking part of its infrastructure out of service. While Yandex reported no employee injuries, the BBC noted that the Kaluga regional governor reported nine people injured in a drone attack on the city's infrastructure. The Kaluga site is one of Russia's largest, covering 130,000 square meters.

The disruption has affected Yandex's AI chatbot functions and smart home devices. The company told Tass that while teams are working "day and night" to maintain its search engine, taxi, and food-ordering apps, it is difficult to predict when full operations will resume. Yandex described the data centers as critical for the normal operation of its services.

President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attacks as a "mirror-like" response to Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centers. According to the BBC, Ukraine's defense ministry confirmed the strikes, stating they are intended to force Russia to divert resources. International reported that while Ukraine has stepped up infrastructure attacks, it had not explicitly claimed responsibility for the Yandex strike in its initial statements.

Background

The incident follows a period of escalated infrastructure targeting by both sides. In September, President Zelensky warned at the United Nations General Assembly that Kyiv would make the winter painful for Russia if the two countries could not reach an energy truce, following repeated Russian strikes on the Ukrainian power grid.