A series of Ukrainian drone strikes on critical Russian technology facilities has marked a sharp shift in the conflict toward digital infrastructure. Previous attacks targeted energy plants and trade logistics, but the recent drone raids have focused directly on data centers.
On Oct. 8, a drone strike severely damaged a Yandex data center in Sasovo within the Ryazan region, forcing a complete shutdown. The following day, another drone hit the company facility in Kaluga, which serves as its largest data center in Russia and knocked several modules out of service.
A third Yandex facility in the Vladimir region ceased operations after a drone hit it on Oct. 11. No Yandex employees suffered injuries in the strikes, but the company has not provided a definitive timeline for restoring the damaged sites.
Sberbank First Deputy Chairman Alexander Vedyakhin said Wednesday that a drone had also attacked the bank data center in Balakovo within the Saratov region. Vedyakhin confirmed that no employees were injured and that all bank systems continued to operate normally.
However, Saratov Governor Roman Busargin reported that the strike in Balakovo damaged residential buildings and killed one person. These digital infrastructure attacks followed an earlier escalation in Russian military strikes on Ukrainian data centers and telecommunications.
The disruptions to Yandex crippled a wide range of consumer offerings, including Yandex Go, Yandex Pay, Yandex Mail, Yandex Disk, and smart home systems powered by the Alisa artificial intelligence assistant. Third-party businesses, such as internet service providers, retailers, and online platforms relying on Yandex cloud infrastructure, also suffered outages.
Real estate platform Cian reported on Oct. 12 that its digital platforms had resumed with limited functionality. E-commerce retailer M.Video experienced disruptions on Oct. 11, with services restored the following day despite lingering slowness, while internet provider Dom.ru also faced outages.
Yandex Advertising stated Tuesday that several key services had resumed operations, though access to Yandex Direct and Yandex Business accounts stayed temporarily restricted. The targeted data centers housed critical infrastructure for Russian artificial intelligence development, including two of the three supercomputers used to train the YandexGPT model.
To mitigate the impact, Yandex partnered with alternative cloud providers Selectel, VK Cloud and K2 Cloud to accelerate data migration for corporate clients. The outages also reached neighboring countries including Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, disrupting local taxi bookings and food delivery applications.
Maksut Shadayev, Russia’s Minister of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media, told a State Duma committee that his ministry is collaborating with the Defense Ministry to protect data centers from future drone attacks. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that the government was discussing the fallout from the disruptions, noting it is too early to assess potential financial losses for users or decide on compensation.
Industry sources indicate that Russian data center operators are now procuring protective equipment and upgrading defenses. Ukraine has previously targeted oil refineries, fuel depots, and logistics sites, along with warehouses operated by e-commerce firms Wildberries and Ozon.
