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Ukrainian drone attacks targeted two data centers owned by Yandex in Russia on consecutive days, disrupting digital services.
Yandex said Friday that a Ukrainian drone strike had partially shut down a data center in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow. A day earlier, another facility in the city of Sasovo, southeast of the capital, was attacked.
Ukrainian arms manufacturer Firepoint said Kyiv had sent FP-1 one-way attack drones to Kaluga, where, according to the company, Yandex operates its largest data center. Several modules were completely disabled in the attack.
Yandex said its employees were working around the clock to restore services. It remains unclear how long repairs will take.
“Our teams are working around the clock to keep services running and help those affected by the incident. This is our top priority right now, but unfortunately, it is not easy,” the company said in a statement.
Thousands of users lose access to services
Yandex provides a range of digital services, including navigation, music, films, food delivery and cloud computing. Its cloud services allow businesses to store data and manage their online operations.
Some customers were unable to access services following the attacks. Alexander Savitsky, head of the dating app Pulse, told Reuters that all 8,000 of the app’s users had been unable to access the platform since Thursday.
“We have no confirmation that data has actually been lost, but the situation is serious: the project is the result of three years of work,” Savitsky said.
Yandex said it had reached agreements with other cloud service providers to help customers quickly transfer their data and services. The company’s shares fell by more than 4% on the Moscow Exchange.
Maryana Lazaricheva, head of equity research at T-Investments, said the attacks could affect Yandex’s revenue and pose a risk to business customers. Although two of the company’s five data centers were targeted, the full extent of the service disruptions remains unclear.
Drone strikes increasingly target digital infrastructure
As the war enters its fifth year, Russia and Ukraine are increasingly using drones to strike critical infrastructure. Targets extend beyond military facilities to include energy infrastructure, oil refineries, ports, ships carrying oil and grain, e-commerce warehouses and, more recently, data centers.
Ukraine has previously struck warehouses belonging to Russian e-commerce companies Wildberries and Ozon. Russia has also carried out similar attacks on Ukrainian facilities.
Over the past month, Russian strikes on data centers and telecommunications networks in Ukraine have forced several facilities to shut down. One attack temporarily cut internet access to 100,000 households.
Ukraine’s digital development minister told Reuters last month that Kyiv was moving digital infrastructure underground in response to the attacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Friday that Ukrainian drones had struck the data center in Kaluga, calling it a response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. “We always respond in the same way,” Zelensky said Thursday.
According to the regional governor, nine people were injured in the Ukrainian attacks, five of whom were hospitalized.
