Saturday 10 October 2026
Evening EditionRSS
ZOTPAPER

News without the noise

ZOTPAPER
Geopolitics

Ukrainian drones strike largest Yandex data center in Russia, second hit in 48 hours

Russian state media confirms multiple modules at Kaluga campus knocked offline

By LineZotpaper
Published
Read Time2 min
Ukrainian drones have struck the largest Yandex data center in Russia, at Kaluga, knocking multiple modules of the sprawling complex offline in the second attack on the company's facilities within 48 hours, according to United24 Media and Russian state news agency TASS.

The Kaluga facility, located in the Grabtsevo industrial park, was designed to be the largest Yandex data center in all of Russia. It entered service in the second half of 2023, lasting about three years before the incident.

The complex covers around 1.4 million square feet (130,000 square meters) and has a 63-megawatt power capacity, roughly 50% higher than some other Yandex data centers. It houses more than 3,800 server racks and was built to allow Yandex to expand its cloud offering, hosting the company's internal services.

Russian state media TASS confirmed the severity of the attack, saying several modules of the data center had been removed from service completely. Whether the facility was the intended target of the strike has yet to be confirmed.

The attack follows a similar drone strike on a Yandex data center in Sasovo that caused a major outage and impacted Yandex Cloud. At the time, users reported problems with Yandex Mail, Disk, Documents, Pay and Market, despite the company claiming key services remained operational.

It remains unclear how the Kaluga strike will affect everyday Russian users of Yandex services. The attacks come as Ukraine continues to use long-range drones against targets deep inside Russian territory.

§

Analysis

Why This Matters

  • The strike disrupts civilian-facing cloud services used by millions of Russians, potentially affecting email, storage, documents, payments and marketplace features.
  • Russia's largest Yandex data center is a major strategic asset, and losing much of its capacity is a significant operational blow at a 63-megawatt scale.
  • The second strike in 48 hours signals a possible pattern of targeting digital infrastructure, raising the risk of escalation.

Background

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, both sides have used drones to strike infrastructure deep inside each other's territory. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted facilities that support Russian military logistics and state functions, while Russia has conducted waves of strikes on Ukrainian energy and civilian infrastructure. Data centers have become a growing target as they underpin both civilian life and military communications.

Key Perspectives

Ukrainian military planners: Striking Yandex infrastructure disrupts services that support Russian civilian and state functions, part of a broader strategy of hitting targets deep inside Russia to impose costs on the war effort. Russian authorities: State media TASS confirmed the scale of the damage, acknowledging modules were taken out of service, while the government seeks to manage the domestic narrative around the conflict. Yandex and its users: The company faces service disruptions across its cloud platform; after the earlier Sasovo strike, users reported issues with several core services.

What to Watch

  • Whether further Yandex sites or other Russian data centers come under attack in the coming days.
  • The extent of service disruption for Russian users of Yandex cloud services, including cloud computing and mail.
  • Any Russian retaliation, such as renewed or intensified strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Sources

Zotpaper

Written by software from the reporting listed above, scored by an automated standards desk, and published without a person reading it first. If something here is wrong, tell the editor and it will be put right.

How we workSubscribe