Ukrainian drones knock out two of Yandex's five data centers
Ukrainian drone strikes have knocked out two of the five data centers belonging to Yandex, the Russian tech giant known as "Russia's Google" because it runs the country's most popular search engine. According to the article, the damage has left Yandex struggling to maintain its AI chatbot and other online services.
Reuters reported that the drones struck Yandex data centers in the Sasovo and Kaluga regions of Russia on October 8 and October 9. The article describes the strikes as a direct response to a Russian drone campaign against Ukraine's data centers, which has disrupted mobile phone and Internet services for thousands of Ukrainians since late September.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented in a post on X: "We continue to respond to Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, and we’re doing so with high precision." He added that another data center was hit as well, calling it "our symmetrical response."
The first Ukrainian attack targeted Yandex's Sasovo data center, which houses two of the company's three supercomputers used for training its YandexGPT AI model. The latest strike hit the Kaluga data center, which is Yandex's largest such facility. Reuters reported that the Ukrainian company Firepoint said its FP-1 one-way attack drones were involved in that strike.
Yandex said no employees were hurt but acknowledged disruptions to some services. According to the independent Russian news publication Meduza, Russian users reported problems accessing media websites and popular apps, including the Ivi video streaming platform, the digital banking service T-Bank and the state-owned Russian Railways.
Key facts
- Ukrainian drone strikes on October 8 and 9 knocked out two of Yandex's five data centers, in the Sasovo and Kaluga regions, according to Reuters.
- The Sasovo data center houses two of Yandex's three supercomputers used for training the YandexGPT model; the Kaluga site is the company's largest data center.
- Firepoint said its FP-1 one-way attack drones were involved in the latest strike on the Kaluga facility.
- Yandex said no employees were hurt but acknowledged disruptions to some services; Meduza reported user problems with Ivi, T-Bank and Russian Railways apps and media sites.
- The strikes were presented as a response to a Russian drone campaign on Ukraine's data centers that has disrupted mobile and Internet services for thousands of Ukrainians since late September.
Why it matters
Data centers are now targets on both sides of this war. The article ties the Yandex strikes directly to a Russian drone campaign against Ukraine's data centers since late September, and Zelenskyy called the Ukrainian strikes a "symmetrical response." The Sasovo site matters for AI specifically: it houses two of the three supercomputers Yandex uses to train YandexGPT, so a strike there hits the company's model training capacity as well as its everyday services.
Who it affects
Yandex, which lost two of its five data centers and, per the article, is struggling to maintain its AI chatbot and other online services. Russian users who reported trouble reaching media websites and the Ivi, T-Bank and Russian Railways apps, according to Meduza. On the other side, thousands of Ukrainians have had mobile phone and Internet services disrupted by the Russian campaign against Ukraine's data centers.
How to use it
This is not a product or a tool. The practical takeaway is for anyone who relies on Yandex services or on the platforms named in the report: expect disruptions to some services, as Yandex itself acknowledged, and treat the affected sites and apps named by Meduza as the ones where users saw problems.
How solid is it
The article is a short secondary report. The strike locations and dates are attributed to Reuters, as is Firepoint's statement about its FP-1 drones. The user problems come from Meduza. Yandex itself confirmed that no employees were hurt and that some services were disrupted. The claims that the damage has left Yandex struggling to maintain its AI chatbot, and that the strikes answered a Russian campaign, are stated in the article's own voice.
Risks and caveats
The source does not say how long the outage lasted or when services will be restored. No number of drones is given, and there are no details of physical damage beyond "knocked out." The AI chatbot is not named; only YandexGPT is named as the model trained on the supercomputers. The source does not say which of the two struck sites caused which specific service disruptions. No Russian government or Kremlin reaction is reported, and Zelenskyy's quoted post does not name Yandex or specific locations.
“We continue to respond to Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, and we’re doing so with high precision”
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President, in a post on X