Third Yandex data center in Russia shut down following reported drone attack

Russian technology giant Yandex's data center in Vladimir Oblast has been completely shut down following a reported drone attack, Russian state news agency TASS said on Oct. 11, citing the company.

The reported strike marks the third near-consecutive day of attacks on Yandex data centers in Russia, following confirmed strikes in Ryazan and Kaluga oblasts on Oct. 8 and 9.

Earlier on Oct. 11, Yandex Cloud reported power disruptions in an availability zone identified as being located at the company's data center in Vladimir.

"There are power interruptions in the ru-central1-a availability zone. The team is working to resolve the issue," the company said in a statement published on its official Telegram channel.

Yandex Go users across Russia reported being unable to order taxis on Oct. 11, with similar disruptions reported in Serbia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia, according to Russian independent media outlet Ostorozhno Novosti..

The outlet also reported that Yandex Pro, an application used by taxi drivers and couriers, was unavailable, while employees experienced problems accessing internal support systems.  Users also reported disruptions to Yandex's smart home services.

Russian independent media outlet ASTRA reported that Yandex Cloud experienced power disruptions at its Vladimir data center following warnings of a drone attack in the region. Ukrainian monitoring channels also circulated images purportedly showing a fire near the facility.

The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the images or the extent of damage at the facility or to any of the Yandex apps or services.

The latest incident follows two drone strikes that Yandex has publicly acknowledged.

On Oct. 8, a drone attack caused a fire at the company's data center in Sasovo, Ryazan Oblast, forcing it to suspend operations completely. Yandex said it could not yet determine when the facility's equipment could be restored.


A second strike on Oct. 9 damaged the company's data center in Kaluga, disabling several modules and potentially disrupting services.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 8 that Ukraine was responding to Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centers. "We always respond in kind," he told journalists, adding that Russia "has been and still is striking our data centers."

In a statement on Oct. 9, Yandex described its data centers as critical infrastructure for its services and said employees were working around the clock to restore operations.

On Oct. 10, Yandex updated its user agreement to include drone and missile attacks among circumstances of force majeure that could exempt the company from contractual obligations.

The reported attacks come amid an expanding campaign of Ukrainian long-range strikes against infrastructure inside Russia.