Ukraine Drones Strike Yandex Data Centers in Russia

Ukrainian drones disabled two of five data centers operated by Russian tech giant Yandex on Oct. 8 and Oct. 9, striking facilities in the Sasovo and Kaluga regions of Russia, according to Ars Technica, which cited Reuters. Yandex runs Russia's most-used search engine and is often described as "Russia's Google."

What happened at Yandex's data centers?

The Sasovo facility that was hit houses two of Yandex's three supercomputers used to train its YandexGPT artificial-intelligence model, Ars Technica reported. The Kaluga site is described in the same report as Yandex's largest data center. Yandex said no employees were injured but acknowledged disruptions to some of its services, according to the outlet.

The Ukrainian company Firepoint said its FP-1 one-way attack drones were involved in the strike on the Kaluga facility, Reuters reported, as relayed by Ars Technica.

Why did Ukraine call the strike "symmetrical"?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy framed the attacks as retaliation for a Russian drone campaign that has targeted Ukraine's own data centers since late September, disrupting mobile phone and internet service for thousands of Ukrainians. "We continue to respond to Russia's attacks on Ukraine, and we're doing so with high precision," Zelenskyy wrote on X, as quoted by Ars Technica. "Another data center was hit as well — our symmetrical response."

The framing places the Yandex strikes inside a broader pattern: Russia has carried out mass missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian power grids, transportation hubs and residential buildings since President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion began in February 2022, per the report. Ukraine, which has faced shortages of interceptor weapons able to shoot down Russian missiles and jet-powered drones, has gradually expanded its own medium- and long-range drone program in response, the outlet noted.

Which Russian services went down?

Russian users reported trouble accessing media sites and several popular apps tied to Yandex infrastructure, including the Ivi video-streaming platform, the T-Bank digital banking service and the website of state-owned Russian Railways, according to the independent Russian outlet Meduza as cited by Ars Technica. Reuters additionally reported outages affecting a dating app, a real-estate aggregator, a self-publishing platform and the website of the top club in the Russian Premier League soccer division.

The spread of outages across banking, transit, media and sports sites underscores how much everyday Russian online activity runs through Yandex's cloud and data-center network, separate from its search and AI products.

How does this fit the wider data-center war?

According to Ars Technica, data centers have become wartime targets more broadly in 2026. After the United States and Israel struck Iran in February, Iranian drones knocked out multiple Amazon data centers in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, the outlet reported. The Yandex strikes extend that pattern to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with Ukraine's drone campaign now reaching facilities tied to artificial-intelligence training rather than only military or energy targets.

Ukraine's broader drone operations have also focused on Russian military bases and supply lines, Russian-linked shipping in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, and Russian energy infrastructure, per the report.

Timeline: Ukraine's drone campaign on Yandex

• Late September 2026 — Russian drone strikes begin disrupting Ukrainian data centers, cutting mobile and internet service for thousands of Ukrainians, Ars Technica reported.
• Oct. 8, 2026 — Ukrainian drones strike Yandex's Sasovo data center, damaging a facility housing two of the company's three supercomputers used to train YandexGPT, according to Reuters as cited by Ars Technica.
• Oct. 9, 2026 — A second strike hits Yandex's Kaluga data center, the company's largest, with Firepoint's FP-1 drones involved, per Reuters.
• Oct. 9, 2026 — Zelenskyy publicly calls the strikes a "symmetrical response" to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data infrastructure, in a post on X cited by Ars Technica.
• Following days — Russian users report outages at Ivi, T-Bank, Russian Railways and other services tied to Yandex's network, according to Meduza and Reuters reporting relayed by Ars Technica.

Yandex has not detailed a repair timeline for the Sasovo and Kaluga sites in the reporting reviewed, and it remains unclear how long the disruptions to YandexGPT training and the affected consumer apps will last.