Yandex data centers hit by Ukrainian drones

From October 8 to 11, three of Yandex’s six major data centers in Russia were damaged by Ukrainian drones. The attack disrupted a wide range of services, including taxis, online payments, streaming, and artificial intelligence tools, affecting the daily operations of many Russians.

Widespread disruption to digital services

The outages impacted nearly every aspect of Yandex’s ecosystem, from food delivery and online shopping to websites and AI tools. While some services have been restored, others remain unstable, and full recovery may take months. The damaged data centers are now seen as a critical weakness in Russia’s digital infrastructure.

Economic impact of the outages

The disruptions have caused significant financial losses. Leonid Konik of ComNews Group estimated that a full day of Yandex shutdown could cost around 4 billion rubles, or several dozen million euros. Experts note that even partial outages have affected billions of rubles in daily transactions, especially in major cities where Yandex handles most digital services.

Concerns over long-term consequences

An anonymous source from T-Bank warned that prolonged outages could harm self-employed workers like taxi drivers and couriers who rely on Yandex. Meanwhile, businesses reported losses due to disrupted deliveries and website operations, with one clothing brand estimating a 20% drop in expected revenue.

Putin downplays the impact

During a speech to Russian entrepreneurs on October 15, President Vladimir Putin dismissed the outages, claiming they were a consequence of Ukraine’s initial actions. He emphasized Russia’s retaliation against Ukrainian infrastructure and expressed support for importing weapons to Poland, despite reports of rising violence there.