Ukraine drone strikes on Russian data centres disrupt services and AI work

Ukrainian drone strikes have damaged data centres operated by Yandex, Sberbank and the social media platform VKontakte, disrupting cloud services, payments, e-commerce and ride-hailing across Russia, according to accounts from users and analysts. The strikes this month hit three Yandex facilities, one Sberbank data centre and one serving VKontakte, the report said, with satellite imagery said to indicate serious damage.

The companies have not disclosed the extent of the damage. Yandex said it restored most key cloud services within days by switching to other facilities in Russia. Users nevertheless reported interrupted orders on Yandex Market, failed connections on the ride-hailing app and disruption to Yandex's Alisa virtual assistant and AI chatbots. Arbitration courts were reportedly forced to cancel or postpone sessions after losing database access.

The strikes targeted infrastructure central to Russia's AI ambitions. Yandex's three supercomputers are ranked among the world's top 500, with its most powerful, housed at the Sasovo facility in the Ryazan region, ranked 19th. Analysts cited in the report said replacing the Nvidia A100 chips that power the machines would be difficult given sanctions and a global shortage of high-end processors.

"This effectively sets Russia far behind in the AI race," said Mikhail Klimarev, head of the Internet Protection Society activist group, who added that soot from fires triggered by the strikes is likely to have damaged delicate electronics. Connor Martin of the Council on Foreign Relations was cited as saying the strikes will likely set Russian AI efforts back further.

Analysts pointed to Russia's digital sovereignty policy, which requires data to be stored domestically, as a structural vulnerability. Nick Reiners, senior geotechnology analyst at Eurasia Group, said that because all infrastructure and data sit inside Russia, "it's relatively easier to take down". Klimarev suggested Russian firms may now seek computing capacity in Europe, a shift he said could paradoxically spare the Russian internet from further isolation.