Yandex Data Center Shut Down in Vladimir Following Ukrainian Drone Attack

Russian technology giant Yandex faced a complete shutdown of its data center in the city of Vladimir on Sunday following a drone attack, marking the third strike on the company’s critical infrastructure in four days as Ukraine widens its long-range campaign deep inside Russian territory.

The Sunday strike in Vladimir cut power to the ru-central1-a availability zone within Yandex Cloud, which is physically housed in the Energetik neighborhood. The facility, which launched a new 40 MW expansion in March 2026 to accommodate 2,800 server racks, experienced a total cessation of operations according to company operational updates.

Escalating Drone Campaign Hits Three Yandex Data Hubs in Four Days

On Thursday, a Ukrainian strike shut down the company’s facility in Sasovo, located in the Ryazan region southeast of Moscow. That hub housed two of the three supercomputers used to train Yandex’s large AI models. Just 24 hours later on Friday, Ukrainian drones struck a major data center in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow.

Emergency services mobilized at the site after a drone strike near Vladimir, which ignited a fire and prompted the evacuation of nearby residents. Yandex confirmed that no injuries occurred during the Sunday strike, mirroring reports from earlier locations.

Business Disruption and Stock Market Reaction as Cloud Services Stumble

Often described as Russia's Google, Yandex operates five major data centers that support daily digital commerce, map services, and entertainment for millions of users. The sudden wave of infrastructure damage triggered widespread secondary failures across Russian digital services, including real estate aggregator Cian, book portal Litmarket, and the online platforms of Russian Railways and professional football club Spartak Moscow.

Alexander Savitsky, who manages an 8,000-user start-up dating app, told reporters that his platform had been inaccessible since Thursday because his team could not reach backup databases stored in the cloud. We have no confirmation of actual data loss, but the situation is serious: the project represents three years of work, said.

“Yandex said it had struck a deal with other cloud providers to enable clients to swiftly move their data and services.”

Reuters

If the chain of attacks continues, this possibility vanishes, which could lead to even more severe consequences.

Tit-for-Tat Infrastructure Strikes Amid Frontline Stalemate

The digital sabotage unfolds against a backdrop of prolonged military deadlock along physical front lines more than four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion. Both nations have systematically widened their aerial campaigns beyond traditional military targets to encompass energy refineries, logistics hubs, e-commerce warehouses like Wildberries and Ozon, and now digital data centers.

The escalation follows a pattern of mutual retaliation. Over the month preceding the Yandex strikes, Russian missile and drone barrages targeted Ukrainian telecommunications infrastructure and data centers in central Kyiv, causing temporary internet outages for 100,000 households. Addressing the strategy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy defended the widening target selection on Thursday, stating, We always respond in mirror-like fashion.

More on this story: Ukrainian Drone Strikes Hit Wildberries Logistics Facilities in Russia · Ukrainian Drone Strikes Hit Moscow Oblast Plant and Crimea Substations · Russian Aerial Attacks Strike Ten Ukrainian Regions and Infrastructure