Ukrainian drones hit Yandex site in first major attack on Russian data center housing two of the tech giant’s supercomputers

On October 8, Ukrainian drones launched an attack on the town of Sasovo in Russia’s Ryazan Region, striking the Sasta machine-tool plant. This facility houses a data center operated by Yandex, often referred to as "Russia's Google." Yandex confirmed that a fire broke out at the site following the attack. Ukrainian monitoring channels were among the first to report the drone incident and its consequences, although authorities have not yet commented on the matter.

A Russian Defense Ministry summary listed attacks in the Ryazan Region, along with strikes in Moscow, Tambov, Tula, and Oryol regions, but provided no information on damage. NASA FIRMS fire-monitoring maps showed a blaze at the Sasta plant and Yandex data center shortly after 2 a.m. Yandex itself confirmed the attack, stating that a fire had broken out at the data center as a result of a drone attack, affecting part of the infrastructure.

Emergency services are currently working to address the aftermath. The center's operations are suspended, rendering some services unavailable to users. For instance, the social media autoposting service Postmypost experienced temporary disruptions before returning online. Downdetector recorded complaints about various Yandex services, including Yandex Search, Yandex Disk, and others.

Russian news agency Interfax reported the incident almost verbatim, replacing the phrase "a fire broke out as a result of a drone attack" with "an incident occurred." State-run RIA Novosti omitted any mention of a drone attack, describing the event as a fire.