Ukraine appears to have escalated its conflict with Russia by targeting critical digital infrastructure. A drone attack struck a Yandex data center in Kaluga, southwest of Moscow, on Friday, disabling several modules and causing service disruptions. This follows a similar strike on another Yandex facility in Ryazan just a day earlier. Kyiv has not officially claimed responsibility, but the attacks suggest a retaliatory response to Russia's recent strikes on Ukrainian data centers.
Yandex, often called Russia’s version of Google, confirmed the damage in Kaluga and assured that no injuries occurred. However, the company is still assessing the full extent of the damage, which could impact its services, including its leading generative AI model, YandexGPT. Meanwhile, Russian authorities reported shooting down 26 drones over Kaluga, though some struck other parts of the region, injuring nine people.
The Ryazan data center, hit on Thursday, hosts thousands of servers critical to Yandex’s operations and cloud computing services. The facility also houses the sanctioned Sasta factory, which produces equipment for Russia’s military. Yandex has not yet confirmed whether the damaged infrastructure can be restored.
Russian military bloggers have criticized the lack of preparedness for such attacks, noting that Ukraine had anticipated potential strikes on its digital sector. The blogger Artjockey suggested that Russian officials overlooked vulnerabilities while advising President Putin to target Ukrainian data centers, which led to retaliatory strikes on similar Russian infrastructure.