Ukrainian drone strike targets Yandex data centre in Sasovo

On October 8, 2026, a Ukrainian drone strike hit a major data centre owned by Russian technology giant Yandex in Sasovo. This incident marks the first significant attack on a Russian data hub since the onset of the war, as the scope of drone operations has increasingly expanded from energy facilities and infrastructure to technology sectors.

The attack triggered a fire and forced a suspension of operations at the site, which serves as one of Yandex's five major data centres and hosts tens of thousands of servers. Crucially, the facility houses two of the company's three supercomputers used for artificial intelligence development. While Yandex reported that core consumer services remain operational, the company has confirmed difficulties with electricity supply to one of its cloud zones. As of Thursday afternoon, technical teams were still evaluating the extent of the damage, with the firm unable to confirm whether the critical equipment can be restored.

This strike follows a month of intensified Russian bombardment of Ukrainian telecommunications and data infrastructure. Yandex, often referred to as 'Russia's Google', continues to assess the situation while advising customers to utilize alternative data zones to maintain service continuity.