Ukraine strikes Russian data centres in response to Moscow attacks

Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 15 Oct, 12:44 · Archive

Ukrainian drones have struck Russian data centres owned by Yandex and Sberbank, disrupting services for businesses and households.

Ukrainian drones have struck data centres in western Russia owned by Yandex, the country's largest internet company, and Sberbank, its largest bank. Three strikes hit Yandex facilities in Sasovo, Kaluga and Vladimir in the past week. One data centre in Vladimir shut down completely on Sunday. A Sberbank data centre in Saratov was also targeted on Wednesday, though a company executive said operations were not affected.

The strikes have disrupted services for thousands of businesses and households relying on Yandex's cloud infrastructure, causing delays to food-delivery apps, e-commerce platforms, digital payment systems and car-sharing services. Ukraine says the operations are justified as responses to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres that began in late September and disrupted phone service for thousands of households in Kyiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine was responding in 'mirror-like fashion' to Russian strikes. 'You all know, they have been hitting and continue to hit our data centres. We are responding,' he told reporters. A senior Ukrainian official told Politico that the strikes aimed to disrupt Russian military planning and communication services.

Experts say rebuilding will be particularly difficult for Russia. Oleg Shakirov, a cyber policy researcher, noted that most hardware must be imported and that sanctions and global demand complicate replacement. 'Since two data centers are still offline, we can assume that it's significant,' he said. The Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was too early to assess whether users had suffered financial losses.

How it is being reported

• Broken dating apps and delayed takeaways: How Ukrainian strikes on data centres are upending daily life in RussiaAfter Russian energy attacks left Ukrainians without heating and electricity last winter, Kyiv has in 2026 sought to disrupt Russian daily life in response. Its attacks on datacentres may be the most comprehensive disruption yetIndependent World · 15 Oct, 12:23
• Why Ukrainian strikes on data centers are a real problem for Russia — and beyondServers have become a target of war. As well as disrupting daily life, the strikes are raising questions of international law.Politico Europe · 15 Oct, 03:00

In this story: Ukraine · Russia · Yandex · Sberbank · Volodymyr Zelensky · Dmitry Peskov · Oleg Shakirov

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