Third Yandex data centre shut down after reported drone attack
The outage in Vladimir follows attacks on Yandex sites in Ryazan and Kaluga, but the cause has not yet been fully independently established.
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A data centre belonging to Russian technology company Yandex in Vladimir has been completely shut down following a reported drone attack, according to Yandex Cloud. It is the third consecutive disruption at a Yandex site in several days, while the precise cause of the latest power outage is still being investigated.
Yandex Cloud reported on Sunday that the power supply in availability zone ru-central1-a had been disrupted. The remaining infrastructure was deemed unstable, according to the status notice, and customers were advised to use alternative recovery plans. Yandex said the damage was being assessed and that no casualties had been reported.
The Russian news organisation RBC wrote, citing Yandex Cloud’s notice, that infrastructure at the data centre in Vladimir had been damaged in a drone attack. The regional governor also reported a fire and outages at two substations. Whether the drones hit the data centre itself, the power supply or both had not been independently established on Sunday morning.
The new outage follows two earlier incidents. During the night of 7–8 October, the data centre in Sasovo, in the Ryazan region, was reportedly badly damaged and completely shut down, according to Yandex. A day later, several modules at a second data centre in Kaluga were taken out of service. According to Yandex, no employees were injured in either incident.
The consequences could extend beyond Yandex’s own services. The company provides cloud infrastructure to other organisations and operates search, transport, payment and streaming services, among others. The status page had already reported that customers needed to move computing power and storage to other zones. The scale and duration of the disruptions vary by service.
The attacks are also relevant to the development of artificial intelligence. According to Reuters, two of the three supercomputers Yandex uses to develop its YandexGPT model were located in the Sasovo data centre. The company has not yet fully disclosed what equipment was damaged or whether any data or models were lost.
The series fits into a broader expansion of drone attacks on digital infrastructure in the war between Russia and Ukraine. Reuters described the earlier attacks as part of a reciprocal campaign in which both countries target data centres and other infrastructure. Ukraine has not officially claimed responsibility for the latest attack. As a result, the military significance of the series also remains uncertain for now.
One story, several perspectives
What is established
- Yandex Cloud reported serious disruptions at multiple data centres.
- The latest cause and the responsible party have not been independently established.
- The incidents affect digital infrastructure that is also used by businesses.
Left
Arguments Digital infrastructure with societal functions should not automatically be treated as a military target. Companies and governments should invest in redundancy and transparency, while attacks on civilian systems should be condemned internationally.
Values Protecting civilians, digital public goods and limiting the damage caused by war.
Consequences Greater distribution and open reporting improve resilience, but make cloud services more expensive.
Centre
Arguments The central task is practical continuity: multiple data centres, independent back-ups, clear incident reporting and minimal reliance on a single provider. Military attributions should only be made after technical verification and intelligence-agency scrutiny.
Values Resilience, proportionality, evidence and continuity of services.
Consequences A stricter resilience standard could limit disruptions, but would require investment from both companies and governments.
Right
Arguments Data centres are part of a country’s strategic infrastructure and should be protected as such. An adversary that attacks such hubs must expect deterrence and retaliation.
Values National security, technological independence and protection of strategic capacity.
Consequences Greater security and state support could strengthen continuity, but would also increase the militarisation of commercial technology.
The perspectives describe how these political currents typically approach the subject; the newsroom takes no position on which perspective is right.
Fact-check Approved · Nour Haddad — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
The technical disruption and the earlier attacks are supported by public company and news sources. The text explicitly presents responsibility and the exact damage as uncertain.
- confirmed A Yandex data centre in Vladimir was completely shut down after a reported drone attack. — RBC cites Yandex Cloud Alerts; the cause of the attack remains attributed and qualified in the text. source
- confirmed Yandex sites in Ryazan and Kaluga were hit earlier in the same week. — Yandex confirmed the incidents in its own statement; Reuters reported independently on the second site. source
- confirmed Two of Yandex’s three AI supercomputers were located in Sasovo. — Reuters reported this based on information about the data centre. source
- uncertain Ukraine has not officially claimed responsibility for the latest attack. — No official Ukrainian claim was found in the public sources consulted; this does not rule out a later claim. source
Editor's note
The disruption in Vladimir and the earlier incidents were reported by Yandex and independent media. The characterisation of the Vladimir incident as a Ukrainian drone attack has not been independently confirmed; the exact damage to AI hardware is also unknown.Sources
- Yandex Cloud status history — Yandex Cloud
- Yandex datacenter in Vladimir stopped after drone attack — RBC
- Ukraine hits second major tech site — Reuters via MarketScreener
- What is happening to our data centers — Yandex
More on this in Dutch media
- NOS — „yandex yandex cloud”
- Het Parool — „yandex yandex cloud”
- NRC — „yandex yandex cloud”