NEWS
Yandex Suspends Operations at Moscow-Area Data Centre After Third Ukrainian Drone Strike in One Week
Yandex, Russia’s largest technology companies widely regarded as the country’s equivalent of Google, has been forced to suspend operations at one of its data centres following a Ukrainian drone strike, marking the third reported attack on the company’s facilities within a single week.
The latest attack targeted Yandex’s data centre in Vladimir, a city east of Moscow, damaging the facility and disrupting some of the company’s digital services. The company confirmed that no one was injured in the incident, although the damage forced it to halt operations at the site while efforts to restore connectivity continued.
In a statement published on Telegram, Yandex confirmed that operations at the Vladimir facility had been completely suspended following the strike. The development has raised fresh concerns about the vulnerability of Russia’s technology infrastructure as the war between Moscow and Kyiv continues to intensify.
The incident comes after two other Yandex data centres were reportedly hit in Ukrainian attacks earlier in the week. The first strike occurred on Thursday in Sasovo, while another targeted a facility in Kaluga, southwest of Moscow, on Friday.
The successive attacks have placed significant pressure on the technology company, which operates a broad range of digital services used by millions of people across Russia. These include an artificial intelligence chatbot, smart home devices, online food ordering and a popular taxi-hailing application.
Yandex had previously warned that its data centres were essential to the normal functioning of its services, adding that the disruptions caused by the earlier attacks made it difficult to determine when full operations would be restored.
The latest incident has further complicated the company’s efforts to maintain service availability, with some users already experiencing difficulties accessing certain platforms following the earlier strikes.
The attacks appear to form part of Ukraine’s broader campaign against infrastructure and facilities it considers important to Russia’s ability to finance and sustain its war effort.
Kyiv has repeatedly defended strikes against selected Russian targets as a means of reducing Moscow’s military capabilities and placing additional pressure on its economy.
Ukrainian officials have argued that attacks on strategic infrastructure could force Russia to divert resources towards emergency repairs and reconstruction rather than concentrating entirely on its military campaign.
The strikes against Yandex facilities also highlight how the conflict has increasingly extended beyond conventional military targets, affecting commercial technology infrastructure and digital services relied upon by ordinary citizens and businesses.
The latest attack occurred hours after United States President Donald Trump criticised Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries, urging Kyiv to stop targeting the facilities so that Russia could release more diesel onto the global market.
Trump’s position has drawn criticism in Europe and contributed to a diplomatic dispute with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, particularly over the implications of allowing Russia to expand fuel supplies while the war remains unresolved.
The US president has also called for Ukraine to get a new president following Zelensky’s condemnation of the proposed diesel arrangement, adding another layer of tension to the already complicated diplomatic relationship surrounding the conflict.
Meanwhile, the war has continued to exact a devastating toll on Ukrainian communities, with Russian attacks reported across several regions over the weekend.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service reported that six people were injured in overnight Russian attacks affecting four districts in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region.
In another deadly incident, at least 20 people, including four children, were reportedly killed in Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, according to local officials.
Russia has also previously targeted data centres in Ukraine, disrupting internet connectivity and prompting some companies to relocate their servers abroad in an effort to protect their digital infrastructure from further attacks.
The latest strikes on Yandex underscore the growing exposure of technology companies to the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war, as critical digital infrastructure becomes increasingly vulnerable to attacks alongside energy facilities, industrial sites and other strategic assets.
With three reported strikes against Yandex facilities in a single week, uncertainty remains over the extent of the damage, the timeline for restoring normal operations and the potential for further disruptions to serv
ices used by millions of Russians.