{
  "id": 12922561,
  "title": "Ukraine hit a data center operated by the Russian tech giant Yandex. How vulnerable is Russia’s internet to further drone attacks?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/ukraine-hit-a-data-center-operated-by-the-russian-tech-giant-yandex",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-08T17:57:49.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Meduza (English)",
    "slug": "meduza-english",
    "url": "https://meduza.io/en/cards/ukraine-strikes-a-data-center-operated-by-russian-tech-giant-yandex-how-vulnerable-is-russia-s-internet-to-further-drone-attacks"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "On October 8, Ukrainian forces launched a drone attack on a Yandex data center in Sasovo, Russia, causing a fire and shutting down the facility. This incident disrupted several Yandex services, including Yandex Disk, Yandex Documents, Mail, and its owned services like Cian, Avito, IVI, MegaFon, Russian Railways, T-Bank, and several property developers and media outlets. The attack also impacted other major companies, highlighting the vulnerability of Russia's internet infrastructure to drone strikes.\n\nThe data center, part of the former Sasta machine tool factory, houses two of Yandex's three supercomputers used for training neural networks. It's unclear whether these systems were damaged, but the extent of the damage remains uncertain. Yandex's shares fell by over 3% following the attack.\n\nYandex's data is replicated across four \"availability zones,\" ensuring recovery if data is lost in one location. However, other companies' virtual machines hosted at the Ryazan data center are solely responsible for their own data backups. In the event of an attack, customers could have used Yandex Cloud Backup, which stores data at multiple data centers, or chosen alternative solutions.\n\nExperts suggest that while a single strike on a regional data center may cause local disruptions, it's unlikely to bring down the entire Russian internet. Russia's main data centers are concentrated in Moscow and are well-protected. However, targeted attacks on regional facilities belonging to major providers like Rostelecom, Sber, VK, or Selectel could cause localized disruptions, affecting services for a few hours to a day as administrators reconfigure the systems.",
  "summary": "Overnight on October 8, Ukrainian forces struck Yandex’s data center in Sasovo, in Russia’s Ryazan region, with drones, causing a fire. No one was injured, but the data center temporarily shut down completely. This disrupted some of Yandex’s own services, as well as those of companies that used the tech giant’s infrastructure in Sasovo.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 8,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Interfax-Ukraine",
        "title": "Zelenskyy orders assistance for Pryluky residents left homeless by Russian strike",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/zelenskyy-orders-assistance-for-pryluky-residents-left-homeless-by",
        "published": "2026-10-08T15:43:30.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Daily Times",
        "title": "At least 32 killed in Russian strikes across Ukraine",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/at-least-32-killed-in-russian-strikes-across-ukraine",
        "published": "2026-10-08T16:49:43.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "France 24",
        "title": "Russian attack on Ukraine busses part of 'a steady increase in attacks on civilians'",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/russian-attack-on-ukraine-busses-part-of-a-steady-increase-in-attacks",
        "published": "2026-10-08T17:11:25.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Kyiv Independent",
        "title": "Ukraine war latest: Russian glide bomb strikes in Kramatorsk kill at least 33",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/ukraine-war-latest-russian-glide-bomb-strikes-in-kramatorsk-kill-at",
        "published": "2026-10-08T17:55:11.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Meduza (English)",
        "title": "Russian missile strike on apartment building in Pryluky, northern Ukraine, kills 22 people, including five children",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/russian-missile-strike-on-apartment-building-in-pryluky-northern",
        "published": "2026-10-08T18:24:27.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Sydney Morning Herald",
        "title": "Russian strikes kill at least 30 in Ukraine",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/russian-strikes-kill-at-least-30-in-ukraine",
        "published": "2026-10-08T19:12:58.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "The Age",
        "title": "Russian strikes kill at least 30 in Ukraine",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/08/russian-strikes-kill-at-least-30-in-ukraine-12933065",
        "published": "2026-10-08T19:12:58.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}