Yandex Shuts Down Vladimir Data Center After Drone Attack

Yandex said on Sunday that its data center in the Vladimir region was forced to shut down following a drone attack, the third to hit the company's facilities in four days as Ukraine targets Russian tech infrastructure.

"As a result of the UAV attack, the infrastructure of Yandex's data center in Vladimir was damaged. The data center's operation has been completely suspended. There are no casualties; the relevant services are already on site and dealing with the consequences," Yandex said in a service alert.

Third Attack in Four Days

On October 8, a drone strike caused a fire at Yandex's Sasovo data center, southeast of Moscow, forcing it to shut down. The facility houses two of the three supercomputers used to develop the company's AI model, although it remains unclear whether the machines were damaged.

On October 9, another Yandex facility in the Kaluga region was damaged by Ukrainian drones and was partly forced offline. Independent Russian outlet ASTRA shared photos showing a fire and thick smoke over Vladimir following the latest drone attack.

Cloud Platform Operating in Emergency Mode

Yandex said it is working to restore its systems, but the Yandex Cloud platform "continues to operate with limited functionality." The company warned that the remaining resource configuration is unstable and that the platform's operating mode is emergency, recommending customers use any alternative disaster recovery plans.

Businesses relying on Yandex Cloud for computing infrastructure or data storage could also be affected. Yandex is one of Russia's largest technology companies, with a market capitalization of approximately $16 billion as of October 2026. Its search engine accounts for roughly 70% of the Russian market.

Ukraine Responds to Russian Strikes

After the Sasovo strike, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country responds "in mirror-like fashion," adding: "You all know, they have been hitting and continue to hit our data centres. We are responding. I can't share all the details."

Earlier, the Kremlin ordered data center operators to prepare for upcoming drone attacks as Ukraine expanded its long-range drone campaign against Russian infrastructure.

Sources: Cybernews