Russian search engine Yandex struggles after Ukrainian strikes on data centres

Russian tech giant Yandex has remarked it was struggling to maintain services after two of its five data centres were struck by Ukrainian drones previously two days.

Key points

• President Volodymyr Zelensky remarked the attacks were in response to weeks of Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centres.
• Zelensky remarked Kyiv was responding to similar Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres in a "mirror-like fashion".
• Last month, a Russian drone hit a business centre in Kyiv, killing four individuals and damaging a data centre.
• Its data centre in Sasovo, meanwhile, houses two of three supercomputers applied to develop the company's AI model.
• Ukraine's defence ministry confirmed the data centre attacks, saying they could "force Russia to divert resources to repair the damaged capacity".

As well as a food-ordering and taxi app employed by tens of millions of individuals, often dubbed "Russia's Google", the firm runs the country's most popular search engine.

Both sides have stepped up attacks on infrastructure in recent months as the war between the two drags on. Kyiv notes its strikes are aimed at revenue streams for Moscow's war machine, and that the latest attacks could force Russia to divert resources to Yandex.

According to Yandex, its data centre in Sasovo, in the Ryazan region, had been "seriously damaged as a result of a drone attack" overnight into Thursday, with its operations "completely suspended".

Another data centre in Kaluga, a region south-west of Moscow, had additionally been attacked on Friday morning, it stated, with part of that site's infrastructure "taken out of service".

Yandex remarked on Friday that its data centres were "critical" for the normal operation of its services and that it was "very difficult to predict" when they would be back online.

It remarked teams were working "day and night" to keep services running, but "unfortunately it is not a simple task".

For context, the tech giant remarked none of its employees had been injured in the strikes. The regional governor in Kaluga remarked nine residents had been injured in a drone attack on the city's infrastructure.

While its smart home devices may additionally experience challenges, the exact scope of the disruption to the company's services is unclear – though it informed state news agency Tass that some of its AI chatbot functions were temporarily unavailable.

Yandex previously remarked its Kaluga data centre was one of Russia's largest – covering an area of 130, 000 sqm (1, 399, 000 sq ft) and consuming as much electricity annually as 220, 000 UK households.

Its data centre in Sasovo, meanwhile, houses two of three supercomputers applied to develop the company's AI model. It is unclear whether the supercomputers survived the attack.

Last month, a Russian drone hit a business centre in Kyiv, killing four individuals and damaging a data centre. Due to the strikes, regarding 100, 000 households in Kyiv and the region suffered internet outages.

Some Ukrainian firms have already begun moving data from damaged servers to facilities abroad.

Moscow has justified the attacks by saying the data centres were applied by Ukrainian military intelligence.

But Ukraine accuses it of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure. Russia has stepped up strikes on energy infrastructure ahead of the winter, as it has done in previous years of the full-scale invasion. It began in 2022.

For now, russian search engine Yandex struggles after Ukrainian strikes on data centres remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.