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Defence & Security13 Oct 2026 · about 6 min

Kremlin says the government is discussing Yandex's problems after Ukrainian strikes on its data centres

The brief

Ukraine struck three Yandex data centres, according to the Kremlin. At Sasovo, in Russia’s Ryazan region, a fire after a drone strike suspended operations. The site hosts tens of thousands of servers and is one of Yandex’s five large data centres. These facilities support the company’s technology and AI services. The attacks matter because disabling a data centre can interrupt services that depend on its servers. Yandex said drones hit one of its major centres on October 8. NASA FIRMS detected unusual thermal activity at the location that day, while the reported footage showed smoke from the site. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the government was discussing Yandex’s problems. He said it was too early to assess whether users had suffered financial losses or whether compensation was needed. Peskov added that Yandex was taking urgent steps to address the consequences.

01

What happened to Yandex's data centres, and why is the Kremlin discussing the company's problems?

Ukraine struck three Yandex data centres, according to the Kremlin. At Sasovo, in Russia’s Ryazan region, a fire after a drone strike suspended operations. The site hosts tens of thousands of servers and is one of Yandex’s five large data centres. These facilities support the company’s technology and AI services.

The attacks matter because disabling a data centre can interrupt services that depend on its servers. Yandex said drones hit one of its major centres on October 8. NASA FIRMS detected unusual thermal activity at the location that day, while the reported footage showed smoke from the site.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the government was discussing Yandex’s problems. He said it was too early to assess whether users had suffered financial losses or whether compensation was needed. Peskov added that Yandex was taking urgent steps to address the consequences.

02

What is a data centre, and what does it do for a technology company like Yandex?

A data centre is a specialised building that houses computer servers, storage systems, networking equipment, and supporting power and cooling systems. It provides the physical machinery behind digital services. Although users experience Yandex through websites, apps, and other interfaces, those services depend on equipment inside such facilities.

Servers in a data centre process requests, store information, and run software. For a company like Yandex, the same infrastructure can support search, delivery technology, cloud services, and artificial-intelligence systems. The article identifies Yandex as a Russian technology and AI company, but does not list every service supported by the affected sites.

The Sasovo facility illustrates the scale involved. It is one of Yandex’s five large data centres and hosts tens of thousands of servers. When operations there were suspended after a fire, Yandex had to take urgent steps to address the attack’s consequences.

03

How large is Yandex's affected infrastructure—how many data centres were struck, and how many servers can one major site contain?

The article gives two measures of Yandex’s affected infrastructure. The Kremlin said Ukraine struck three of the company’s data centres. It also describes Sasovo as one of Yandex’s five large data centres, showing that the company’s infrastructure is distributed across several major sites.

The Sasovo hub is especially substantial. The article says it hosts tens of thousands of servers. Those servers are the computers that store data, process requests, and run software. A fire following a drone strike forced operations to be suspended there, demonstrating how physical damage can affect a large concentration of computing equipment.

The figures do not show how many servers were damaged or how many users were affected. Peskov said it was too early to assess whether users had suffered financial losses from outages. Yandex was taking urgent steps to deal with the consequences, but the article gives no final recovery timetable.

04

What can happen to users when a data centre is damaged and operations are suspended?

When a data centre is damaged, its servers may stop processing requests or become unsafe to operate. Services relying on that site can then become unavailable, slower, or less reliable. The article does not identify which particular Yandex services were interrupted, but it confirms that attacks caused outages.

At Sasovo, a fire after a drone strike forced operations to be suspended. The facility hosts tens of thousands of servers, so stopping the site removed a large amount of computing capacity at once. Yandex began taking urgent steps to address the consequences, while the Kremlin monitored the company’s difficulties.

The possible impact goes beyond inconvenience. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was too early to determine whether users had suffered financial losses from the outages. He also said the government was discussing the matter, including the question of whether a compensation mechanism might be considered.

05

Why might the Russian government consider compensating users for losses caused by outages at a private technology company?

A government may consider compensation when a major outage affects many people or businesses and creates financial harm. It might also intervene when essential digital infrastructure is attacked. In this case, Yandex is a private technology and AI company, but the disruption followed strikes on facilities inside Russia and affected users.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked whether the government was considering a mechanism to compensate users. He replied that it was too early to assess whether users had suffered financial losses from the outages. He said Yandex was facing difficulties and that the matter was being discussed by the government.

The article does not say that compensation has been approved, nor does it describe eligibility or payment rules. For now, Yandex is taking urgent steps to address the consequences of the attack. Peskov also called the company strong and powerful, suggesting the immediate focus remains on restoring operations and measuring damage.

06

How can Yandex keep its services running when one or more data centres are attacked or disabled?

A technology company can keep services running by spreading workloads across multiple data centres. If one site fails, software can direct requests to operating facilities. The company can also restore data from copies and move computing tasks to spare capacity. These are standard resilience methods, but the article does not confirm which ones Yandex is using.

Yandex operates five large data centres, and three were struck. That distribution may give the company other sites to support services, although the article does not state how much capacity remains available. The Sasovo centre alone hosts tens of thousands of servers, so replacing its capacity could be difficult.

The confirmed response is that Yandex is taking urgent steps to address the attack’s consequences. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the company strong and powerful. The article provides no recovery timetable or technical details, so the eventual effect on services remains uncertain.

07

Why are physical data centres essential to everyday internet services, cloud computing, and artificial-intelligence systems?

Internet services are digital to users but physical underneath. Data centres contain the servers, storage, networking, power, and cooling equipment needed to process requests and keep software operating. Cloud computing depends on this hardware because remote users access computing and storage held in data centres.

Artificial-intelligence systems also require substantial computing equipment to run software and process information. Yandex is described as a technology and AI company, and its Sasovo hub hosts tens of thousands of servers. When a fire after a drone strike forced operations to stop there, the physical foundation of its services was disrupted.

The incident shows why these facilities matter to everyday digital activity. The Kremlin said three Yandex data centres had been struck, and outages followed. Yandex is taking urgent steps, but the article does not specify which services were affected or how quickly full operations will return.

This brief was written by AI from the original reporting and checked by other models. Names, figures and quotes come from the source; read it for full context.

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