Smoke billowing from a vital tech hub has thrust Russia's digital infrastructure into the crosshairs of war, leaving millions facing potential disruptions. BBC News reported that Russian search engine Yandex is struggling to keep its services running after two of its five data centres were struck by Ukrainian drones over consecutive days.

According to BBC News, Yandex stated that its facility in Sasovo, located in the Ryazan region, suffered serious damage in an overnight drone attack, forcing operations to be completely suspended. A second data centre in Kaluga, situated south-west of Moscow, was targeted in a Friday morning strike which took part of its infrastructure out of service, BBC News reported. Yandex confirmed to state news agency Tass, as cited by BBC News, that some artificial intelligence chatbot functions were temporarily unavailable and smart home devices might experience problems, though the full scope of the disruption remains unclear.

BBC News reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated the attacks were carried out in response to weeks of Russian strikes on Ukrainian data centres. Ukraine's defence ministry confirmed the data centre attacks to BBC News, noting they could compel Russia to divert resources to repair damaged capacity, while Kyiv maintains its strikes target revenue streams for Moscow's war machine. According to BBC News, the Kaluga facility is one of Russia's largest data centres, spanning 130,000 square metres, while the Sasovo site houses two of the three supercomputers utilized for developing the company's AI model.

Background

According to BBC News, Yandex operates Russia's most popular search engine, along with widely used food-ordering and taxi applications serving tens of millions of people. Both Russia and Ukraine have escalated attacks on critical infrastructure as the ongoing conflict persists. BBC News noted that a Russian drone previously struck a Kyiv business centre last month, resulting in four deaths, damage to a data centre, and internet outages for approximately 100,000 households in the region. In response to these incidents, some Ukrainian companies have started relocating data from damaged servers to overseas facilities, while Moscow has justified its own strikes, according to BBC News.

Why it matters

For international observers and ordinary citizens alike, the targeting of major internet infrastructure highlights the growing vulnerability of digital networks during modern armed conflicts. As essential services like search engines, ride-hailing apps, and artificial intelligence tools face operational hurdles from physical attacks on data storage hubs, the global digital ecosystem is reminded of how deeply interconnected and fragile online services have become amidst geopolitical tensions.

What's next

Yandex teams are working continuously to keep services online, though the company told BBC News that predicting when the affected data centres will be fully operational again is very difficult.