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Drones hit Yandex data centre in first major attack on Russian data hub - Finance news and analysis from Global Banking & Finance Review
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Drones hit Yandex data centre in first major attack on Russian data hub

Published by Global Banking & Finance Review

Posted on October 8, 2026

2 min read

· Last updated: October 8, 2026

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Yandex Data Centre in Ryazan Struck by Drones, Causing Major Outage

Details of the Drone Attack and Its Impact

Incident Overview

MOSCOW, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Drones hit a major data centre in Russia's Ryazan region owned by the country's leading AI and technology company Yandex, the company said on Thursday.

Immediate Consequences

Fire and Suspension of Operations

It added that the attack caused a fire and forced the company to fully suspend the centre's operations. The company said it was dealing with the consequences and restoring affected services.

Effect on Core Services

The company said that its core consumer services were not affected. Yandex runs YandexGPT, one of Russia's leading generative AI models.

Context and Related Incidents

Recent Attacks in the Region

The attack on the Yandex data centre followed a wave of Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres in recent weeks. Previously there were no confirmed major Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian data centres.

Service Disruption and Recommendations

Electricity Supply Issues

On the website of its Yandex Cloud service, the company said there were problems with the electricity supply at one data centre "zone", and recommended customers use other zones.

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov; Writing by Gleb BryanskiEditing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Peter Graff)

Key Takeaways

  • The drone attack targeted Yandex’s biggest data centre, located in Sasovo in Russia’s Ryazan region (“ru‑central1‑b” zone), causing a fire and forcing suspension of operations, including power and cloud services (kyivindependent.com).
  • Yandex confirmed its core consumer services and generative AI platform YandexGPT were not affected, while recommending cloud customers shift workloads to other zones amid outage recovery (kyivindependent.com).
  • The attack marks the first confirmed drone strike on a Russian data centre, following recent Ukrainian drone assaults on logistics and industrial infrastructure deep inside Russia but none previously targeting Russian data hubs (kyivindependent.com)

References

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened at the Yandex data centre in Russia?
Drones attacked the Yandex data centre in Russia's Ryazan region, causing a fire and temporary suspension of operations.
Were Yandex's core consumer services affected by the attack?
No, Yandex reported that its core consumer services were not affected by the data centre attack.
Is this the first major Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian data centre?
Yes, this was the first confirmed major Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian data centre.
What steps did Yandex take after the attack?
Yandex began restoring affected services and advised customers to use other data centre zones.

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