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// DOSSIER — ukrainian-drone-campaign-cripples-yandex-data-center-network
Ukrainian Drone Campaign Cripples Yandex Data Center Network
REL_TIME: 12 Oct 2026 08:12Z · LANG: EN
Between October 8 and 11, 2026, a coordinated Ukrainian drone campaign systematically disabled three of Yandex's five major Russian data centers. The strikes targeted facilities in Sasovo, Kaluga, and Vladimir, effectively idling Russia's most powerful AI-training supercomputers—Chervonenkis, Lyapunov, and Galushkin—which are used for YandexGPT development. The resulting infrastructure damage triggered widespread outages for over 80 cloud and consumer services, including Yandex Go, Yandex Music, and Yandex Cloud, across Russia and several neighboring countries. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy characterized the operation as a symmetrical response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian digital infrastructure.
// Background
The campaign against Yandex follows previous Ukrainian strikes on Russian economic targets, including oil refineries and e-commerce warehouses belonging to Wildberries and Ozon. It marks a shift toward targeting the high-performance computing infrastructure that supports both Russia's digital economy and its domestic AI development.
// Key Developments
- Three major Yandex data centers in Sasovo, Kaluga, and Vladimir were disabled within a four-day window.
- All three of Yandex's AI-training supercomputers, powered by Nvidia A100 chips, were reportedly idled or damaged.
- Service disruptions affected ride-hailing, payments, and cloud infrastructure in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Serbia, and Kyrgyzstan.
- The Vladimir strike caused local power outages for 5,000 residents and forced the evacuation of nearby residential areas.
- Yandex shares fell by approximately 4% on the Moscow Exchange following the sequence of attacks.
// Timeline
-
Drone strike on Sasovo data center in the Ryazan region causes a major fire and idles two supercomputers.
-
Attack on the Kaluga data center southwest of Moscow disables several hardware modules.
-
Yandex updates its user agreement to list drone and missile attacks as force majeure circumstances.
-
Overnight drone strike shuts down the Vladimir data center, affecting the Galushkin supercomputer and 80+ cloud services.
// Perspectives
[Ukraine]
Views the strikes as a legitimate 'tit-for-tat' response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian telecommunications and data hubs.
[Yandex]
Focusing on disaster recovery and emergency operations while classifying drone strikes as force majeure in user agreements.
[Market Analysts]
Concerned that the loss of specialized AI hardware like Nvidia A100 chips will be difficult to replace due to international sanctions and high market costs.
// Quotes
“We always respond in mirror-like fashion... They have been hitting and continue to hit our data centres. We are responding.”
“Operations at the data centre have been completely suspended... The remaining resource configuration is considered unstable.”
“Data centers are the iron heart of Yandex. Their operation is critical for services that have become part of people’s everyday lives.”
