Ukraine hit a data center operated by the Russian tech giant Yandex. How vulnerable is Russia’s internet to further drone attacks?

Ukrainian drones struck Yandex's data center in Sasovo, Russia overnight Oct. 8, starting a fire that knocked the facility fully offline and disrupted Yandex Mail, Yandex Disk, and services at companies including Cian, Avito, MegaFon, and Russian Railways that rely on its infrastructure. Yandex shares fell more than 3% afterward, and two of the company's three supercomputers were housed at the site; the extent of damage to them is unknown.

Experts told Meduza a single strike cannot take down Russia's internet nationwide, since major data centers are concentrated and well protected around Moscow, and traffic typically reroutes to backups. But analysts flagged Russia's main internet exchange point, MSK-IX, as a target that could cause widespread slowdowns if hit, following a pattern of reciprocal strikes on digital infrastructure by both militaries since late September.

Neither side has offered public evidence that the targeted data centers meet the legal threshold for military objectives under the Geneva Conventions, which presume civilian infrastructure is protected absent clear proof otherwise.

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