Ukraine strikes Russian tech giant’s data centres

Ukraine has struck two of Russian tech giant Yandex’s data centres this week, in retaliation for Moscow’s attacks on its own IT facilities as the air war widens to target the systems that underpin each country’s economy.

Yandex, often referred to as “Russia’s Google”, confirmed a drone attack on its largest data centre, in central Russia’s Kaluga region, in the early hours of Friday. The previous night, another data centre in the Ryazan region, also in central Russia, was attacked, Yandex said.

The Kaluga strike “completely knocked out several modules of the data centre”, Yandex said. Its shares fell about 4 per cent on the Moscow Exchange following the hit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had vowed retaliation after weeks of Russian attacks on its digital infrastructure. “They’ve been attacking and are attacking our data centres . . . we always respond in kind,” he said on Thursday.

The strikes broadened Ukraine’s campaign inside Russia, having successfully targeted oil refineries and warehouses belonging to the country’s biggest online retailers.

Yandex is the country’s key technology company, offering services from a search engine, email, internet browser, cloud services and AI to a taxi app, food delivery and smart home devices.

After the strike on the Ryazan data centre, the websites of companies using its cloud infrastructure suffered disruptions, including those of the Russian state railway monopoly, major telecoms operator MegaFon and several Russian media outlets. The centre also hosts two of the three supercomputers Yandex uses to develop its AI model.

Yandex said it did not know when the centres would return to full operation.

“We are continuing to assess the state of the infrastructure, and at this stage it is very difficult to say when the equipment at the data centres will be fully operational again,” the company’s statement on Friday said.

Russia has intensified its strikes on Ukrainian data centres, telecommunications facilities and business centres in recent weeks, launching waves of ballistic missiles and new jet-powered drones capable of penetrating Kyiv’s beleaguered air defences.

Ukrainian officials and business leaders have warned Russia is seeking to cause broad economic disruption, potentially threatening the digital infrastructure supporting banks, payment providers, businesses, government services and the military.

In late September, 100,000 households in Kyiv and the surrounding region suffered temporary internet outages after strikes on half a dozen data centres and telecommunications facilities.

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Zelenskyy told the FT last week that Russia was expanding its air campaign with a focus on civilian infrastructure, accusing President Vladimir Putin of abandoning the rules of war due to frustration at his lack of military progress.

Ukrainian negotiators flew to the US on Friday to meet President Donald Trump’s special envoys and discuss new ideas for ending Russia’s war. Senior Ukrainian officials said they did not expect any breakthroughs.

Zelenskyy has said Putin wants to wage his war through the winter, when he believes he will have a better chance of breaking Kyiv and forcing Ukraine to agree to his maximalist demands.