Russian search engine Yandex struggles after Ukrainian strikes on data centres

Russian search engine Yandex found itself grappling with significant challenges after Ukrainian drones targeted two of its five data centres within the span of two days. Known colloquially as "Russia's Google," Yandex is the country's most widely used search engine, alongside a popular food-ordering and taxi app utilized by millions.

President Volodymyr Zelensky attributed the attacks to retaliation for Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centres over the preceding weeks. Both parties have ramped up assaults on critical infrastructure as the conflict persists. Kyiv maintains that their strikes target Moscow's revenue streams, suggesting that recent strikes might compel Russia to allocate resources towards repairing Yandex's damaged capacity.

Yandex revealed that its Sasovo data centre in Russia's Ryazan region suffered severe damage from a drone strike overnight into Thursday, resulting in the complete suspension of operations. Additionally, a data centre in Kaluga, situated southwest of Moscow, was hit on Friday morning, with part of its infrastructure rendered ineffective.

Yandex emphasized the critical nature of its data centres for service functionality, expressing the difficulty in forecasting a return to full operation. Teams were tirelessly working around the clock to maintain service, though acknowledging the complexity of the situation. No Yandex employees were injured during the strikes. A regional governor in Kaluga reported nine people were hurt in a drone attack on the city's infrastructure.

The full impact of the disruption to Yandex's services remains uncertain, although the company notified state news agency Tass that some AI chatbot functions were temporarily inaccessible, and smart home devices might encounter issues. Yandex had previously highlighted that its Kaluga data centre is one of Russia's largest, spanning 130,000 square meters (1,399,000 square feet) and consuming the same electricity annually as 220,000 households in the UK.

The fate of the supercomputers responsible for developing Yandex's AI model remains unknown following the attack. Ukraine's defence ministry confirmed the data centre assaults, asserting that such actions may compel Russia to redirect resources to repair the damaged capability. President Zelensky stated that Kyiv is reciprocating Russia's attacks on Ukrainian data centres.

Last month, a Russian drone struck a business center in Kyiv, resulting in four fatalities and substantial damage to a data centre, leading to internet outages for approximately 100,000 households in the city and surrounding areas. Certain Ukrainian enterprises have initiated the process of transferring data from compromised servers to offshore facilities.

Moscow justifies the attacks by alleging that the data centres are utilized by Ukrainian military intelligence, while Ukraine contends that Russia deliberately targets civilian infrastructure. Russia has escalated strikes on energy infrastructure in anticipation of winter, mirroring previous years of the ongoing full-scale invasion that commenced in 2022.