Yandex data centre damaged in drone attack, operations halted

Summarised from 3 outlets · Updated 8 Oct, 09:19 · Archive

A major data centre operated by Russian internet company Yandex caught fire after a drone attack in Ryazan Oblast.

A major data centre operated by Yandex, Russia's largest internet and technology company, caught fire after a drone attack in Ryazan Oblast on Thursday. The facility in Sasovo sustained significant damage and has been forced to cease operations entirely. Yandex reported that the attack caused power-supply problems beginning at around 1:31am local time and warned that the outage could affect other parts of its cloud network.

The company said there were no casualties and that emergency services were on site dealing with the aftermath. Yandex said core consumer services were not affected by the suspension, though some services may be unavailable to users. The company operates Russia's most widely used search engine, cloud services, mapping, taxi and delivery platforms, and developed YandexGPT, one of Russia's leading generative AI models.

Although Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack, it has been escalating strikes on Russian infrastructure in recent months, including energy facilities and oil refineries. This attack represents the first confirmed major Ukrainian drone strike on a Russian data centre, following a wave of Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres.

The drone strike also reportedly damaged a nearby facility operated by Sasta, a military-linked metals company that supplies parts to Russian tactical missiles and has been sanctioned by Western states. Metro reports that Ukrainian forces simultaneously attacked a Gazprom refinery in Salavat and the Samara-2 pumping station, one of Europe's largest oil tank farms.

How it is being reported

• Russia's internet giant Yandex halts operations at major data center after drone attackRussian internet giant Yandex paused operations inside one of its data centers after a drone attack as Ukraine continues to hit the country's infrastructure.CNBC · 8 Oct, 09:17
• Major Russian data centre owned by leading AI company attacked by dronesUkrainian drones are believed to have damaged the facility (Picture: east2west) Russia’s leading AI and technology company had its major data centre hit by suspected Ukrainian drones this week. The company announced today that the attack caused a fire and forced the company to fully suspend the…Metro · 8 Oct, 09:15
• 'Russian Google' Yandex hit by Ukraine drone blitz as massive data centre on fireA major Yandex data centre was reportedly damaged in an overnight drone attack in Russia's Ryazan Oblast, sparking a huge fire at the industrial siteThe Mirror · 8 Oct, 08:11

In this story: Yandex · Ukraine · Russia · Ryazan Oblast · Sasovo · Gazprom

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem