Ukrainian drones target Russian tech giant’s data centers

A strike on a Yandex facility in central Russia forced a shutdown and disrupted digital services across the country A Ukrainian drone strike damaged a major data center operated by Russian tech giant Yandex, forcing a shutdown and reportedly disrupting services for businesses and users across the country.

Yandex is Russia’s largest technology company, offering search, ride-hailing, e-commerce, cloud computing, and AI services.

The Yandex Cloud platform, which provides computing power, data storage, and AI tools, is used by more than a third of Russia’s largest companies.

The attack on Sunday targeted a Yandex facility in Vladimir Region, around 180 km (112 miles) northeast of Moscow.

The site also houses Galushkin, one of the company’s three supercomputers used for AI development.

The strike damaged the data center’s infrastructure and forced a shutdown, Yandex said on Telegram.

“The infrastructure of Yandex’s data center in Vladimir was damaged as a result of a drone attack, and the data center’s operations have been completely suspended.

Some Yandex services are unavailable to users,” the company said.

No injuries were reported.

Emergency crews and Yandex engineers worked to assess the damage and restore services.

The company urged cloud customers to activate alternative disaster-recovery plans.

The attack forced Yandex Cloud into emergency operation, with outages affecting banks, online marketplaces, delivery services, retail apps, pharmacies, fitness clubs, and the website of St.

Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, according to media reports.

In a later update, Yandex said access to some of its services, including Alice AI assistant, Search, Maps, Taxi, and Mail, was gradually being restored.