“Ukrainian Drones Knock Out Supercomputers at Two Yandex Data Centers. Yandex confirmed fires and full shutdowns at its Sasovo and Kaluga sites on back-to-back days, October 8 and 9, after drones hit supercomputers tied to training its YandexGPT model and disrupted services for Russian Railways and MegaFon“.(Startupfortune, Ukrainian Drones Knock Out Supercomputers at Two Yandex Data Centers)
The third closed data center is in Vladimir. That data center provides data services to the Moscow region. And agencies like the GRU, FSB, and the Russian Aviation Institute can use that data.
“Yandex shut down its data center in Vladimir, east of Moscow, after a drone strike damaged its infrastructure on October 11, the company said in a Telegram alert. The outage disrupted Yandex services as the company assessed the damage and worked to restore operations; the Associated Press reported it was the third strike on Yandex facilities in four days.” (LetsDataScience, Yandex Shuts Vladimir Data Center After Drone Attack)
Things. like automated and semi-automated systems require complex codes. To operate. Data centers provide a platform to run and train AI. To operate in that area. Denying drone communication. Using jammers is more complicated than people thought. Jammer bases are in the radio transmitters. Those transmitters send radio signals that should deny data communication between the operator and the drone.
The problem is in radio transmission. That makes jammer systems vulnerable to anti-radiation missiles. The aircraft or drone. It can shoot anti-radiation missiles against those radio transmitters. And the radio jammer works only If. it can operate on the same frequency as the drone. This means that the opponent operator knows those frequencies. When. The drone is jammed.
The operator can shoot anti-radiation missiles from ground vehicles. Or they can shoot those missiles from airplanes. Anti-radiation missile. It can be effective against drones. But only if the missile and its operators know the drone’s command frequency. The anti-radiation missiles are shot from rocket launchers. They can be destructive tools. If. The operators find the right radio frequencies. And these kinds of systems require lots of data.
Data centers play a central role in modern warfare. Those centers serve as information tools. And disinformation tools. They serve as data processing systems. Those systems. They. Can be used to program drones. They can also carry out cyberattacks. Those attacks are important. If. Those operators want to know.
Where. Somebody is moving. Things. Like. Hacked traffic surveillance cameras can tell where some interesting things are moving. Hacked telephone centers can uncover enemy plans. And the big problem is how to make software. That those attacks require.
We must remember. That without cyberattacks, things like the elimination of the Iranian leaders are impossible. Reconnaissance aircraft and satellites cannot. recognize people. Who enter cars in a garage. The system sees cars. But it cannot recognize people. Who sit in a car. Or the person’s precise location. Who is in the house.
Cyberattacks allow attackers to see things. Like operation plans. Hacked cameras and access controls also give more interesting data. Like. Who the next commander of enemy forces is. Or who has private conversations with enemy leaders.
Updated firewalls and antivirus software can make old programs useless. The operators must generate new code. That the antivirus cannot detect. This requires AI-based systems. Attackers must generate lots of code.
In a short period. These kinds of systems require data centers.
Data centers are vulnerable and high-value targets. Trolls are operating using those data centers. And destruction makes it hard to run AI agents. And bots on platforms. The remarkable detail is this. Some far-right and Pro-Trump campaigns. On the net turn silent. When the Ukrainian drones attacked the Yandex data centers.
Yandex attack doesn’t end Russian campaigns. But it decreases them by about 50%. Another thing is that Yandex is part of the “Russian Google” infrastructure. This means: a major Part of the Russian data travels through those data centers. Governmental organizations like Roskomnadzor use those data centers to control the internet.
Yandex closed a Vladimir data center. Near Moscow. That data center could serve the FSB for data processing. At least it provided very important data capacity for the Moscow region. The FSB used that data. For. Targeting their strikes against opposition. Knocking out those supercomputers makes it harder to control the system.
This makes those data centers very high-value targets. In the same way. In Kyiv. Data centers provide their support. For. Intelligence analysis. And. The ability to predict air strikes. Attacks against data infrastructure affect the ability to operate.
https://dailyboulder.com/russian-disinformation-bot-traffic-plunges-overnight-after-ukraine-drone-strikes-cripple-multiple-putins-data-centers-report/
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/86708
https://tech-insider.org/ukraine-strikes-yandex-third-data-center-4-days-2026/
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russian-drones-strike-ukraines-data-centers-by-exploiting-air-defense-gaps/
https://letsdatascience.com/news/yandex-shuts-vladimir-data-center-after-drone-attack-54325517
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roskomnadzor
