Technology & Science
October drone strikes hit data centers used by Yandex, Sberbank and VK
Five facilities were reported hit across three Russian technology firms. Reporting documents outages at Yandex and user complaints after the VK strike, while companies said some core systems remained available.
Executive summary
- Five facilities were reported hit: The Associated Press and Poland’s Centre for Eastern Studies report that drone strikes between Oct. 7 and 18 hit three Yandex data centers, a Sberbank facility under construction and a VK site in Russia. Company statements confirm attacks on facilities used by all three firms, but do not establish the full extent of damage at each site.[1][2][3][4][5]
- Outages were reported, but their causes and reach vary: AP documented customer problems with Yandex services, while cybersecurity outlet The Record reported user complaints and a drop in VK network connectivity after the Oct. 18 strike. VK said its services remained available as usual; The Record said it was not clear whether the reported disruptions were caused by the attack.[1][6][5]
- Long-term AI damage is not yet established: Yandex’s data centers house supercomputers used in AI development, and experts told AP that repairs could take months or longer. The companies have not published a complete equipment assessment, and the Council on Foreign Relations assesses that the strikes are more consequential for Russia’s AI effort than for the global AI race.[1][7][2]
Ukrainian drone strikes reported from Oct. 7 through Oct. 18 hit data centers used by Yandex, Sberbank and VK, according to the Associated Press and Poland’s Centre for Eastern Studies, a government-funded research institute. The facilities were in the Ryazan, Kaluga, Vladimir, Saratov and Leningrad regions. The reports describe three Yandex sites, a Sberbank data center under construction in Balakovo and a VK facility near St. Petersburg.[1][2]
Yandex publicly said its Sasovo center was seriously damaged and shut down after the Oct. 7–8 attack, and that part of its Kaluga infrastructure was out of service after a strike the next morning. OSW reports that the Vladimir site was also stopped after an Oct. 11 attack. Sberbank confirmed its Balakovo center was attacked but said the bank’s systems were operating normally and no employees were hurt. VK confirmed an attack on its Leningrad-region center and said its services were available as usual.[3][2][4][5]
The company statements establish that the facilities were targeted, not how much equipment was lost. Yandex described damage at its own sites but did not publish a full capacity or repair assessment. Sberbank and VK did not disclose damage details in their statements. Satellite imagery reviewed by AP showed serious damage at Sasovo, but the public evidence does not provide a complete engineering assessment of all five facilities.[1][3][4][5]
AP reported customers unable to complete Yandex Market orders and ride-hailing drivers unable to reach passengers, alongside outages affecting Yandex Cloud and other digital services. The extent of disruption changed as Yandex shifted services to other sites; the company said it restored most key cloud functions in the days after the strikes. OSW estimates that about 64,000 customers use Yandex Cloud, including large firms in finance, retail and technology, but that does not mean all were disrupted.[1][2]
After the VK facility was struck on Oct. 18, The Record reported thousands of user complaints about VK services and cited monitoring that showed connectivity falling to 56% of normal levels. VK said its services were operating as usual. The Record said it was unclear whether the complaints and connectivity decline were caused by the strike, so they should not be treated as a confirmed measure of damage at the data center.[6][5]
OSW said the attacks had not critically affected Russia’s economy as a whole, even as they exposed vulnerabilities in individual services concentrated on domestic infrastructure. That distinction matters: the reporting supports significant customer and operational disruption, but not a claim that Russia’s digital economy has been broadly disabled.[2][1]
Yandex’s affected centers housed three of Russia’s prominent supercomputers used in AI development, AP reported. Satellite imagery showed severe damage at Sasovo, and analysts told AP that fire and heat could damage high-end chips. Yandex has not said which machines were damaged or how much computing capacity was lost, and no public repair timetable settles the question.[1][2]
The likely consequence is therefore framed as a risk to Russian AI development, not a measured reduction in model capability. A Council on Foreign Relations analysis says the strikes could further set back Russian AI efforts because key systems rely on advanced Nvidia chips that are difficult for Russia to replace, while judging the effect on the global AI race to be limited. Those are expert assessments; the operational impact remains undisclosed by the companies.[7][1]
OSW also argues that Russia’s data-localization rules make its digital infrastructure more exposed by restricting where companies can keep data and backups. Ukraine’s providers, by contrast, have used infrastructure in allied European countries to maintain operations after Russian attacks, according to the institute. The evidence points to a resilience problem, but does not quantify the damage or establish a new national policy response.[2]