A Ukrainian drone attack on a Yandex data centre in Vladimir overnight on 10–11 October caused widespread disruptions to services operated or hosted by the Russian technology company, including Yandex Go, Yandex Pay, Yandex Disk and Kinopoisk. The strike was the latest in a series of attacks on Yandex facilities reported on 8 and 9 October.
The outages affected a broad range of Russian digital services. According to Meduza, disruptions hit Yandex’s payment, taxi, delivery, cloud storage, music and streaming platforms, as well as the Alisa AI assistant. Websites and services belonging to retailers, pharmacies, food chains and real estate platforms were also affected. The VetIS veterinary system and a database used by state pollster Vtsiom were also reported to have experienced disruptions.
The impact was still visible after some Yandex services returned online. On 12 October, taxi prices reportedly surged as navigation remained unavailable, making it difficult for drivers to operate normally. A source at T-Bank told Vot Tak that more than half of the bank’s self-employed clients worked as Yandex drivers or couriers, raising concerns about the economic impact of a prolonged disruption.
The time needed to restore full operations remains unclear. Yandex’s fintech chief Dmitry Pirogov said on 11 October that he could not yet give a timetable for the return of Yandex Pay. Experts cited by Izvestia said repairs could take weeks if power and cooling systems were damaged, but months if server modules were hit. A source in the IT industry told Kommersant that repairs could take up to six months. Other estimates were significantly longer, although these claims have not been confirmed by Yandex.
The attack also affected Yandex’s market value, with the company’s shares falling sharply after the strike, according to RBC. The full financial impact remains uncertain because the extent of the damage and the repair timetable have not been disclosed.
The disruptions have also raised wider concerns about Russia’s digital and economic infrastructure. Commentators warned that attacks on major banking data centres could have far more serious consequences, while the outage of the VetIS system was described as a warning for other critical state systems. Telecommunications blog ZaTelekom said repeated attacks could undermine Moscow’s efforts to develop a “sovereign” internet if businesses begin moving computing capacity abroad.
Russia has begun discussing additional protection for Yandex’s remaining facilities. Digital Development Minister Maksut Shadayev said on 12 October that his ministry was working with the Defence Ministry on providing cover for the company’s data centres. However, commentators warned that protecting the infrastructure would be difficult because Russian data centres are relatively concentrated and within range of Ukrainian drones.
If further attacks continue, the disruptions could put additional pressure on Russian digital services and businesses. The immediate consequences will depend on how quickly Yandex can restore damaged infrastructure and whether Russia can strengthen the protection of its remaining data centres.
