Ukraine Strikes Yandex Data Center for Third Time in a Week

Yandex, the company often described as Russia's version of Google, suspended operations at a data center in Vladimir on Sunday after a Ukrainian drone strike damaged the facility, according to BBC News. It was the third attack on Yandex infrastructure in a single week.

What happened at the Vladimir data center?

Yandex said on Telegram that the strike east of Moscow left operations "completely suspended" at the site, though the company said it was working to restore connectivity, the BBC reported. No one was injured, Yandex said, but some services were unavailable to users following the attack.

Why has Yandex been hit three times in a week?

The Vladimir strike followed attacks on Yandex facilities in Sasovo on Thursday and in Kaluga, southwest of Moscow, on Friday, the BBC reported. Those strikes caused problems for services including Yandex's AI chatbot and smart home devices. Yandex said at the time that its data centers were "critical for the normal operation of its services" and that it was "very difficult to predict" when they would return online, per the BBC.

Kyiv said it is targeting sites that generate revenue for Moscow's war effort and that the strikes could force Russia to divert resources toward repairs, according to the BBC's reporting. Yandex operates five data centers in total; two were already damaged earlier in the week before Sunday's strike brought the count to three.

How does the US-Russia diesel dispute fit in?

Sunday's strike came hours after President Donald Trump said Ukraine should "damn well stop" attacking Russian oil refineries so Moscow could release more diesel to the global market, the BBC reported. The remark referenced a diesel arrangement that has drawn criticism from European officials and ignited a dispute with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A separate HTT News report details how bipartisan senators say the Russia diesel deal breaks the law. The BBC noted Trump also said it was "time for Ukraine to get [a] new president" after Zelensky condemned the diesel arrangement.

What does this mean for Yandex's services?

Yandex's footprint extends well beyond search. The company also runs a food-delivery and taxi app used by tens of millions of people, the BBC reported, meaning outages at its data centers carry consequences beyond the tech sector itself. The company has not said how long full restoration will take.

How has Russia responded on the battlefield?

Russian strikes on Ukraine continued through the weekend. Ukraine's State Emergency Service said six people were injured in overnight attacks across four districts of the Dnipropetrovsk region, the BBC reported. On Saturday, Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia killed at least 20 people, including four children, according to local officials cited by the BBC. Russia has previously struck Ukrainian data centers as well, the BBC noted, causing internet outages that prompted some Ukrainian firms to move servers abroad — a pattern now mirrored in reverse against Yandex's own infrastructure.

Artiglio is A coming-soon iPhone chief of staff for briefings and drafts. Not on the App Store yet.