Thousands of businesses and individual users could face disruption after drone strikes damaged three data centres operated by Russian technology giant Yandex, leaving customers struggling to access cloud-stored files and other online services.
The attacks targeted facilities in Sasovo, Kaluga and Vladimir between 8 and 11 October, forcing two data centres to shut down completely and leaving the third operating with damaged infrastructure.
Yandex has warned that its cloud platform is operating in emergency mode, with engineers working around the clock to restore services. The company has not provided a reliable timeline for a full recovery and has advised customers to consider alternative disaster-recovery arrangements.
The incidents highlight how physical attacks on data centres can disrupt digital services far beyond the facilities themselves, affecting organisations that depend on cloud infrastructure to store files, run applications and manage business operations.
Three Yandex Data Centres Hit by Drone Strikes
Yandex confirmed that its data centre in Sasovo, in Russia's Ryazan region, was seriously damaged during a drone attack overnight on 7–8 October. The facility was shut down completely.
A second strike hit a data centre in Kaluga on 9 October, damaging part of its infrastructure and taking some equipment out of service.
The third attack targeted a facility in Vladimir overnight on 10–11 October. That data centre also stopped operating completely.
Yandex said no employees were injured in the incidents involving its facilities in Sasovo and Kaluga. The company has been assessing the damage and attempting to maintain services using the infrastructure that remains available.
Ukraine has acknowledged carrying out attacks on Russian data centres, describing them as a response to Russian strikes on Ukrainian digital infrastructure.
The full extent of the physical damage remains unclear. Yandex has also not disclosed whether its supercomputers used for artificial intelligence development were damaged in the attacks.
Yandex Cloud Users Report Problems Accessing Files
The damage has disrupted Yandex Cloud, the company's cloud computing platform used by businesses to host applications, store information and operate digital services.
Some customers have reported being unable to access files stored on Yandex's infrastructure. One customer described problems downloading previously submitted files and missing thumbnails in backups associated with Yandex Disk, the company's cloud storage service.
The reported errors included HTTP 302 redirects, HTTP 504 Gateway Timeout messages and HTTP 500 internal server errors.
These errors can indicate problems with redirects, server responsiveness or internal processing. However, they do not by themselves prove that files have been permanently lost or corrupted.
Yandex has not confirmed that customer data stored at the affected facilities has been irreversibly lost. The company has also not provided a definitive assessment of the number of customers affected.
Yandex Warns Customers to Prepare Alternative Recovery Plans
In updates on its service status, Yandex said its cloud platform remained in a limited and unstable operating mode while engineers worked to restore infrastructure.
The company warned that the remaining configuration of its resources was unstable and recommended that customers use alternative infrastructure for disaster recovery.
Some components, including the Yandex Cloud Console, application programming interfaces, databases, S3 storage and Kubernetes services, have been listed as available, although availability and performance have varied across services. Other offerings have remained partially available or offline.
The status of individual services may change as restoration work progresses, and customers should consult Yandex's official status updates before assuming a particular component is working normally.
The company has said it is prioritising the restoration of services and helping affected customers and partners. However, it has not provided a reliable date for the return of the damaged data centres to normal operation.
The disruption also demonstrates why businesses should not assume that using a major cloud provider automatically guarantees uninterrupted access to their data.
A disaster-recovery plan may need to include independent backups, copies of critical information outside the affected infrastructure and a tested process for restoring essential applications elsewhere.
Outage Affects Services Beyond Cloud Storage
Yandex operates a broad range of digital services, including search, maps, email, ride-hailing, food delivery, payments and artificial intelligence tools. Its cloud infrastructure also supports third-party businesses and applications.
The disruption has therefore extended beyond customers directly using Yandex Cloud.
Reports have described problems affecting several Yandex services, including payment functions and other online platforms that depend on the company's infrastructure.
Yandex's fintech division has also addressed disruption to Yandex Pay, with executives saying restoration work was continuing but that they could not yet give users a precise recovery timeline.
The impact illustrates how a failure at a small number of major infrastructure sites can cascade through interconnected services. A business may not use Yandex directly for file storage, for example, but could still experience problems if an application it relies on is hosted on the company's cloud platform.
The number of affected users and businesses has not been fully established.
Russian Government Discusses Yandex Disruption
The attacks have prompted discussions within the Russian government about the protection of critical digital infrastructure.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 13 October that the government was discussing the problems facing Yandex following the strikes. He added that it was too early to assess whether users had suffered financial losses because of the resulting outages.
The government has not announced a confirmed compensation arrangement for affected customers.
The disruption also raises questions about the time required to replace damaged equipment. A report by The Insider, citing Russian business newspaper Kommersant and an industry source, said deliveries of replacement equipment could take as long as six months. That estimate has not been established as an official restoration deadline from Yandex.
Until the damaged infrastructure is repaired or replaced, the company will need to balance available computing resources while helping customers recover access to their services.
