Yandex said it was struggling to keep services running after Ukrainian drones struck two of its five data centers in the space of two days.
Zoom in: The Sasovo data center in the Ryazan region was seriously damaged overnight into Thursday and its operations were completely suspended. Part of the Kaluga site southwest of Moscow was taken out of service on Friday.
- Yandex said its data centers are critical to the normal operation of its services and that it is very difficult to predict when they will be back online.
By the numbers: The Kaluga site covers 130,000 square meters and consumes as much electricity each year as 220,000 UK households. Sasovo houses two of the three supercomputers Yandex uses to develop its AI model.
The big picture: Yandex runs Russia's most popular search engine plus food ordering and taxi apps used by tens of millions. Some AI chatbot functions went offline and smart home devices may have problems, the company told Tass.
- A dating app, a real estate aggregator, a self-publishing book platform and a Russian Premier League club website were also affected, Reuters reported.
Between the lines: Zelensky said Kyiv was responding to Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centers in mirror-like fashion. A Russian drone hit a Kyiv business center last month, killing four people and cutting internet for about 100,000 households.
Why it matters: Data centers became front-line targets in 2026, after Iranian drones knocked out Amazon facilities in Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Compute now sits alongside refineries and rail as infrastructure a country can lose in a night.
