Ukraine drones damage Yandex data centre in Kaluga, marking second consecutive strike on Russian tech infrastructure
Ukrainian drones hit Yandex's Kaluga data centre, partially disabling it and following a similar attack on another Yandex hub, as both sides expand drone strikes on each other's critical infrastructure.
Ukraine used one-way attack drones to strike Yandex's main data centre in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow, partially disabling several of its modules, Ukrainian arms maker Firepoint said. The attack follows a strike the previous day on Yandex's Sasovo hub, which houses two of the three supercomputers used for the company's AI model.
Yandex, a key provider of cloud services and consumer applications for millions of Russians, reported difficulties restoring its services and warned users of possible disruptions. The company said it is working with other cloud providers to relocate client data and services, while its shares fell more than 4% on the Moscow exchange.
A startup founder whose dating app relies on Yandex Cloud said the service has been unavailable since Thursday, citing internal errors and uncertainty about data loss. Equity research head Maryana Lazaricheva noted that continued attacks could force Yandex to shift load to other centres, but repeated strikes might eliminate that option.
Both Russia and Ukraine have broadened drone campaigns this year to include energy facilities, ports, e-commerce warehouses and, more recently, data centres. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the Kaluga strike as a reciprocal response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian digital infrastructure. Russian officials reported nine injuries in the Ukrainian attacks.
The disruptions have also affected other Russian online services, including real-estate portal Cian, book site Litmarket, Russian Railways and football club Spartak Moscow, which reported technical problems after the attacks.