Second Yandex Data Center Struck by Drone Attack in Russia Within 48 Hours

Yandex's data center in Kaluga has been damaged in a drone strike, marking the second attack on the Russian technology company's infrastructure in less than 48 hours, according to Russian state media outlet TASS. The strike completely knocked out several modules at the facility, the company confirmed in a statement.

"A drone attack damaged part of the infrastructure at Yandex's data center in Kaluga, completely knocking out several modules," Yandex said. "As a result, some Yandex services may experience temporary disruptions. The full extent of the damage is currently being assessed."

The Kaluga facility is one of five large data centers Yandex operates across Russia, alongside sites in Vladimir, Sasovo, Ivanteevka, and Mytishchi. Kaluga is located approximately 298 miles (480 kilometers) east of Sasovo, where the first strike occurred. That earlier attack caused a fire and brought operations down at the Sasovo facility. Yandex has since stated that it remains unable to confirm whether the data center equipment at Sasovo can be restored. According to Reuters, two of Yandex's three supercomputers are housed at the Sasovo center.

At the time of writing, Yandex's status page continued to list a power outage at the ru-central1-b availability zone, along with increased latency in the Object Storage service across its ru-central1-e, a, b, and d availability zones, indicating that service disruptions persist across multiple regions.

The strikes represent an escalating threat to critical digital infrastructure in the region. While this is only the second attack on a major data center in Russia since the outbreak of conflict with Ukraine, numerous data centers in Ukraine have been struck throughout the same period, including multiple facilities in recent weeks. Operations run by Parkovyi Data Center, MiroHost, Datagroup, Vodafone Ukraine, De Novo, Cosmonova, Omega Telecom, and Ukrtelecom have all sustained damage from drone attacks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the strikes in remarks to reporters in Kyiv, stating: "We always respond in mirror-like fashion. You all know, they have been hitting and continue to hit our data centers. We are responding. I can't share all the details."

The repeated targeting of data center infrastructure underscores the growing vulnerability of digital assets in conflict zones and raises broader concerns about the resilience of cloud and hyperscale operations in geopolitically unstable regions. With Yandex operating five major facilities across Russia, the loss of even partial capacity at multiple sites could have cascading effects on the company's ability to deliver services to millions of users.