Yandex, the Russian technology and AI company often referred to as "Russia's Google," said operations at its data centre in Vladimir, east of Moscow, have been completely suspended after a drone attack. No injuries were reported, and emergency services were at the site.
The company advised users to activate disaster-recovery plans, saying the platform was operating in emergency mode. "The remaining resource configuration is considered unstable," Yandex said in a service alert on Telegram, warning that technical support communications could also be disrupted as teams assess the damage.
This is the third attack on Yandex data centres in the past week. On Friday, the company said its data centre in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow was struck by Ukrainian drones and partly put out of action. A day earlier, a Ukrainian attack shut down the Yandex data hub in Sasovo, southeast of Moscow, where two of the three supercomputers used to develop the company's AI model are housed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged the strikes on Thursday, following the Sasovo attack. "We always respond in mirror-like fashion," he said. "You all know, they have been hitting and continue to hit our data centres. We are responding. I can't share all the details."
Russia has struck several Ukrainian data centres and telecommunications infrastructure facilities over the past month, including targets in central Kyiv, in an apparent effort to disrupt connectivity and digital commerce. The exchanges mark a widening of the conflict into technology infrastructure on both sides.