A wave of attacks against the Russian internet giant Yandex has sent shockwaves across the country in recent days and caused major disruptions to daily life.
Ukraine knocked out key Yandex data centers. The fallout is being felt across Russia. — Meduza
Ukraine has struck three of the six data centers belonging to Yandex, a Russian technology company, in Sasovo (Ryazan region), Kaluga, and Vladimir. Kyiv called the strikes a response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centers, which Russian forces have been striking lately. The infrastructure of the company’s “iron heart,” as Yandex calls its data centers, has been damaged. Operations at two of them — in Sasovo and Vladimir — have been halted. At the data center in Kaluga, “several modules have been completely knocked out.” Outages have plagued the Russian internet since the strikes began: not only Yandex’s services but also the websites of other companies and even media outlets have been operating with restrictions. Users abroad have also complained about problems with Yandex’s apps. As of October 12, the company had not managed to restore their operation. Here’s a look at the consequences of the Ukrainian strikes that Yandex and its users have faced.
Yandex: Ukraine strikes data centre in third attack on Russian tech giant
It is the third time this week that Ukraine has targeted Russian tech giant Yandex, forcing the company to suspend its operations.
The Center examined how strikes on Yandex affected the spread of russian propaganda | Центр протидії дезінформації
The Center examined changes in global internet traffic following Ukrainian strikes on data centers belonging to Yandex, a sanctioned russian IT giant, in sa ...
No, Ukraine's strikes on Yandex data centers didn't cripple Russian influence ops
Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian data centers sparked viral claims about a sudden drop in Russian influence operations on social media — even as experts see no evidence to support this. Kyiv struck data centers run by Yandex — Russia's "answer to Google" — in three different regions between Oct. 9 and 11, a response to Russian strikes against similar facilities in Ukraine. Yandex acknowledged the attacks, noting that its data center in Vladimir Oblast had to be shut down due to damage a
Russia called its strikes on Ukrainian data centers a ‘forced digital detox.’ Zelensky says Kyiv has answered by hitting a data center belonging to Russian tech giant Yandex. — Meduza
Ukraine is responding in kind to Russian strikes, including attacks on data centers, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. He was commenting on a Ukrainian strike on a Yandex data center in Russia’s Ryazan region, RBC-Ukraine reported.
Russia's Yandex bot traffic nearly eliminated overnight after Ukraine drone strikes cripple multiple of 'Russia's Google' data centers — Ukraine intensifies bombing of Yandex data centers in response to Moscow’s strikes on Kyiv data centers
The world is getting a break from Russian bots thanks to Kyiv.
Ukraine strikes Yandex data center in Russia, sparking fire — Meduza
A fire broke out at the Sasta machine-tool plant in Sasovo, Ryazan region, which houses one of Yandex’s data centers, the independent Telegram channel Astra reported. Journalists reached that conclusion after analyzing photos and videos from eyewitnesses.
Ukrainian drones hit three of Russian tech giant Yandex’s data centers in four days. Ukraine’s president says the bots thinned out too
Lithuania’s prime minister wants more such strikes to protect elections. Researchers say the bot data shows Yandex’s web crawlers, not trolls.
Rapid-response fact-check: "Yandex Strikes Caused Russian Bot Activity To Drop By 50 Percent" Is False | Joohn Choe
This is going on viral on Facebook today and it's unfortunately wrong. Ukrainian drone strikes on Yandex data centers in Russia did not cut
Zelenskyy Says Yandex Strikes Crippled Pro-Kremlin Bots But Tech Experts Question Evidence
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine's recent attacks on Russian tech giant Yandex’s data centers have resulted in fewer Internet bots promoting pro-Kremlin hate, a claim that has been disputed by many technology researchers.
Drone Strikes Knock Out Yandex Data Centers, Bot Traffic Plunges but Partly Recovers
Drone attacks hit three Yandex data centers, and bot traffic from its network dropped sharply. Public data shows a partial rebound and includes search crawlers, limiting what can be inferred. We look at cloud recovery capacity and the impact on corporate paperwork.
Zelenskyy: less bots, hostility on social networks after strikes on Yandex data centers
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that following Ukrainian responses targeting the data centers of the Russian company Yandex, there are fewer bots, provocations, and hostility on social media platforms.
Is Zelensky right to say data centre strikes have taken down Russian bots?
Experts say there is no evidence that Russian trolls have been affected by Ukraine’s Yandex attacks.
Ukrainian drone strikes have plunged Russia’s internet into crisis. Meduza explains why the damage has been so extensive, and why a full recovery will likely take months. — Meduza
Overnight on October 11, Ukrainian forces launched a drone strike on a Yandex data center in Russia’s Vladimir region. It was the third attack in a row on the Russian tech giant’s infrastructure: On October 8 and 9, drones targeted facilities in Sasovo, in the Ryazan region, and in Kaluga, respectively.
Did “Russian bot traffic” really disappear after Ukrainian strikes on Yandex servers?
Despite multiple Ukrainian strikes hitting Yandex servers in Russia, a thread by antibot4navalny, which has long tracked state-sponsored social media campaigns and troll farms, explains that the Cloudflare “Bot Traffic” chart many people have cited is really about automated web crawlers operated by Yandex accessing the web. It’s not connected to “bots” posting on social media, and Russian bot/crawler traffic overall continues to be about the same as normal. Still, are you noticing any difference in the posts and comments you’ve seen online? [Media: https://bsky.app/profile/antibot4navalny.bsky.social/post/3mxmv7t6nxc27]
