Ukraine has launched drone attacks on two data centres operated by Russian technology giant Yandex within two days, disrupting operations at facilities supporting the company’s digital services and artificial intelligence development.
Ukraine struck and partially disabled a Yandex data centre in Russia’s Kaluga region on Friday, October 9, 2026, a day after another Ukrainian drone attack hit the company’s major data hub in the Ryazan region.
Yandex, one of Russia’s leading technology companies, said Ukrainian drones struck its Kaluga facility, located southwest of Moscow, leaving part of the centre out of operation.
The latest attack followed Thursday’s strike on the company’s data centre in Sasovo, Ryazan region, which houses two of the three supercomputers used to develop its artificial intelligence models.
The company said it was assessing the damage at the Sasovo facility and could not yet confirm whether the affected equipment could be restored.
Attacks Threaten AI Development and Digital Services
Yandex, often described as Russia’s equivalent of Google, plays a significant role in the country’s technology industry and artificial intelligence development.
Its services include online navigation, music and video streaming, grocery delivery, and digital tools used by businesses.
The company warned that the attacks had affected critical infrastructure supporting its operations and said it was working continuously to restore disrupted services.
The full extent of the damage remained unclear, although users of some online platforms reported technical difficulties following the attacks.
Yandex shares fell by 3.75 per cent on the Moscow stock exchange, making the company the market’s biggest decliner during the trading session.
Maryana Lazaricheva, head of equity research at T-Investments, said the attacks could temporarily disrupt services, reduce revenue in affected business segments and create difficulties for the company’s corporate customers.
She explained that Yandex could initially transfer some of its computing workload to other data centres. However, continued attacks could reduce that flexibility and result in more serious operational consequences.
Two of Yandex’s Five Data Centres Hit
According to publicly available information, Yandex operates five data centres across Russia. Two of the facilities have now been targeted.
The company’s remaining three centres include two in the Moscow region and another in the Vladimir region.
In 2021, Yandex disclosed that its Sasovo data centre housed two of its three supercomputers built using Nvidia A100 chips. The machines are used to train its YandexGPT artificial intelligence model.
The company has not confirmed whether those supercomputers were damaged in Thursday’s attack.
Several Russian online services reported technical problems following the strike, including property platform Cian, book website Litmarket, Russian Railways’ website and the website of football club Spartak Moscow.
Ukraine Responds to Russian Attacks
The attacks come amid escalating exchanges between Russia and Ukraine targeting critical infrastructure during their prolonged war.
Russia has intensified attacks on Ukrainian data centres and telecommunications infrastructure in recent weeks, including facilities in central Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday that Ukraine was responding to Russian attacks against its own digital infrastructure.
He indicated that Kyiv was adopting a reciprocal approach to strikes on critical facilities but declined to disclose further operational details.
Ukraine has previously targeted warehouses operated by major Russian e-commerce companies, including Wildberries and Ozon, which Kyiv considers important to Russia’s economy. Those attacks have also been followed by Russian strikes against similar facilities in Ukraine.
Growing Impact on Both Economies
Drone attacks by both sides have increasingly targeted energy facilities, oil refineries, ports, commercial warehouses and other infrastructure beyond traditional military targets.
Previous Ukrainian strikes on Russian infrastructure have contributed to fuel shortages, queues at petrol stations, financial losses for small businesses and increased inflation as higher fuel costs affect consumer prices.
Meanwhile, Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres have forced some facilities to suspend operations after sustaining damage. One such attack also caused temporary internet outages affecting approximately 100,000 households.
Ukraine’s digital minister told Reuters last month that the country was moving some digital infrastructure underground to protect it from Russian attacks.
The latest strikes on Yandex highlight the growing vulnerability of technology infrastructure and artificial intelligence computing facilities as the conflict increasingly extends into the digital economy.
Source: Reuters
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