Yandex says drone attack disabled modules at Kaluga data centre in second strike in two days

Moscow, Russia. Russian technology and AI company Yandex said on Friday that a drone attack had completely disabled several modules at its data centre in Russia’s Kaluga region, the second attack on its data centres in two days. The company said some services could be disrupted and no one was injured in the attack southwest of Moscow.

Earlier strike on Ryazan facility

On Thursday, a Ukrainian drone struck another Yandex data centre in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow. The facility houses two of the three supercomputers used to develop the company’s AI model.

Yandex said it was assessing the damage from that strike and could not confirm whether the equipment could be restored.

Drone attacks on economic targets

Both Russia and Ukraine have expanded drone attacks this year on economic targets, including energy facilities, refineries, ports, vessels carrying oil and grain, e-commerce warehouses and, most recently, data centres.

Over the past month, Russia has conducted a strike campaign against Ukrainian data centres and telecommunications infrastructure, including targets in central Kyiv.

Zelenskiy comments on response

“We always respond in mirror-like fashion,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday. “You all know, they have been hitting and continue to hit our data centres. We are responding. I can’t share all the details.”