Ukraine has struck a Yandex data centre near Vladimir, east of Moscow, in the third attack on the Russian technology company this week, forcing the facility to suspend operations entirely.
Yandex, Russia's largest search engine and technology platform, confirmed on Telegram that the facility was damaged and operations were "completely suspended." The company said it was working to restore connectivity and that no injuries occurred, though some services became unavailable to users.
Two other Yandex data centres were hit earlier in the week. Ukrainian forces targeted a facility in Sasovo on Thursday and another in Kaluga on Friday. After those strikes, Yandex reported that two of its five data centres had been damaged, forcing it to struggle maintaining services including its AI chatbot and smart home devices. The company runs food-ordering and taxi applications used by tens of millions of people.
Kyiv characterized the attacks as targeting places that provide revenue streams for Moscow's war effort. Ukraine said the strikes could force Russia to divert resources to repair the damage. Yandex stated that its data centres are critical for normal operation of its services and that it was "very difficult to predict" when they would return online.
The attacks fit a pattern of escalating infrastructure strikes by both sides as the conflict enters its fifth year following Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Russia has previously targeted Ukrainian data centres, causing internet outages and prompting some firms to move servers abroad.
The timing of Sunday's strike came hours after US President Donald Trump warned that Ukraine should "damn well stop" attacking Russia's oil refineries so Moscow could release more diesel to the global market. Trump's statement drew criticism from Europe and sparked a diplomatic row with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Russian strikes on Ukraine continued through the weekend. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine reported six people injured overnight in Russian attacks on four districts in the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. On Saturday, at least 20 people including four children were killed in Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia, local officials confirmed.