Ukrainian drones hit three of Russian tech giant Yandex’s data centers in four days. Ukraine’s president says the bots thinned out too
Lithuania’s prime minister wants more such strikes to protect elections. Researchers say the bot data shows Yandex’s web crawlers, not trolls.
On 12 October, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian tech giant Yandex's data centers had thinned out social media bots, according to a speech he delivered via video link to the Warsaw Security Forum. Network data showed Yandex's automated traffic collapsing after the strikes, leading Ukraine's social media monitor to report that their own data did not show a clear drop in bot activity.
The Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point confirmed that its FP-1 long-range drones carried out the strikes on Yandex's data centers in Sasovo, Ryazan Oblast, Kutaisi, Kaluga Oblast, and Vladimir Oblast. Despite the claim, it remains unproven and built on a misread chart, as disinformation analyst Joohn Choe concluded in a fact-check.
Written by urgent.news from Euromaidan Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
Also reported by 4 other outlets
- Did Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centres cause Russian bot activity to plummet? euronews.com
- Social media bots declined after Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centers – Zelenskyy english.nv.ua
- Hit more Russian data centres, says Lithuanian PM malaymail.com
- Ukraine’s Strikes on Yandex Data Centers, Explained themoscowtimes.com
