Ukrainian Drones Disrupt Multiple Russian Yandex Data Centres
The Conversation reported on 18 October that Ukrainian forces used drones to strike several Russian data centres, including Yandex facilities, causing a sharp reduction in digital services and raising questions about the resilience of Russia's digital sovereignty push. Meduza said that on 3 October a drone attack ignited a fire at Yandex's data centre in Sasovo, Ryazan region, halting its operations and prompting a drop in the company's shares.
Reuters later noted that Ukrainian drones hit Yandex's Kaluga centre, partially disabling it, while the Moscow Times reported that a total of three Yandex sites in Russia were damaged, leading to outages of online payments, navigation and ride-hailing services across the country and neighboring states. The BBC cited analysts who found no evidence that the strikes had curbed Kremlin-linked disinformation bot networks.
