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Yandex Data Center Hit by Drone Attack
Confirmed
In Short: A drone attack caused a fire at a Yandex data center in Russia, marking the first such strike on a major Russian data hub.
A drone attack caused a fire at a Yandex data center in the town of Sasovo, located about 300 kilometers east of Moscow, according to a Yandex spokesperson.
The attack, which occurred overnight, forced the company to fully suspend operations at the facility while emergency teams worked to contain the damage.
Yandex, often referred to as 'Russia's Google,' runs the country's most popular search engine and other major digital services.
The company's cloud services experienced electricity supply problems, leading to disruptions in services such as Yandex Cloud, Yandex Documents, and Yandex Tables.
Yandex shares dropped more than 3.4% during Thursday morning trading on the Moscow Exchange following the incident.
The attack comes amid intensifying long-range strikes between Russia and Ukraine, with recent Russian attacks targeting Ukrainian data centers and logistics warehouses.
Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation claimed responsibility for the strike, stating that Kyiv was responsible for the attack.
Ryazan regional governor Pavel Malkov reported that two Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the region, noting that a fire broke out on the roof of a business in the Sasovo area.
The Moscow Times, designated as an 'undesirable' organization by Russia's Prosecutor General's Office, reported that the attack on the Yandex data center followed a wave of Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centers.
Outage tracking platform Downdetector recorded more than 1,300 user reports of disruptions affecting Yandex Cloud, Yandex Documents, and Yandex Tables, while core consumer tools like search and taxi services remained online.
Separately, Ukrainian forces attacked a major refinery belonging to Gazprom in Salavat, and a major military-linked metals company, Sasta, was also hit.
What this adds
This is the first confirmed major Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian data center.
The attack on the Yandex data center follows a series of Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centers in recent weeks.
The impact of the attack on Yandex's operations and services is still being assessed.
Background
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian drones of carrying out a deadly attack on a Turkish-owned grain ship in the Black Sea on Monday, resulting in the deaths of two crew members.
Russian drones hit Kyiv's Southern Bridge on Thursday, marking the first such attack on the Ukrainian capital since the conflict began.
What's confirmed
- Drones struck a major data center in Russia’s Ryazan region operated by Yandex, the country’s leading artificial intelligence and technology company, Yandex said Thursday.
- Yandex Cloud’s website said one of its data center “zones” was experiencing electricity supply problems and advised customers to use alternative zones.
- Yandex operates YandexGPT, one of Russia’s leading generative AI models.
- The company announced today that the attack caused a fire and forced the company to fully suspend the centre’s operations.
What's still developing
- Moscow began its Ukraine offensive in February 2022.
- A data centre is a building that houses IT infrastructure, often servers and electronic equipment that ensure the smooth running of internet services.
- Yandex added that it was working to contain the impact and restore services that had been disrupted.
- Yandex said it was dealing with the consequences and restoring affected services.
- This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent." These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia.
- "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership."