Yandex urges disaster recovery after drones damage three Russian data centers
Physical drone strikes on facilities in Sasovo, Kaluga and Vladimir forced Yandex to shut down services and recommend customers activate backup plans.
Key points
- Drones struck three Yandex data centers in early October, causing total shutdowns at two sites and degraded operations at a third.
- The company declared its remaining resources unstable and advised customers to rely on alternative infrastructure for business continuity.
- Critical services like S3 storage and Kubernetes remain available but suffer performance issues, while Monium is completely offline.
Russian cloud provider Yandex confirmed that physical drone attacks damaged multiple facilities, resulting in widespread service interruptions for cloud customers. The company stated that its remaining infrastructure is unstable, prompting recommendations for clients to utilize external disaster recovery plans.
What happened
Drone strikes hit three Yandex data centers in rapid succession during the first half of October, according to BleepingComputer. The Sasovo facility was attacked on October 8, followed by a strike on the Kaluga site on October 9, and an attack on the Vladimir center on October 11. These physical impacts forced Yandex to cease operations entirely at the Sasovo and Vladimir locations.
Operations at the Kaluga facility were not fully halted but remain degraded following the October 9 incident. Yandex reported that no injuries occurred during these attacks, which are believed to have been carried out by Ukrainian forces aiming to disrupt Russian operational capabilities. The physical damage directly translated into service outages for customers relying on the affected infrastructure.
Yandex customers began experiencing issues as early as October 8, with some reporting missing thumbnails for backups and an inability to download previously stored files from Yandex Disk. The company’s status page indicated that teams are working continuously to maintain services, but they could not provide a reliable timeline for full restoration. This uncertainty reflects the ongoing emergency operating mode declared by the provider.
Why it matters
Yandex is widely considered Russia’s largest technology company, providing essential services ranging from search and maps to cloud infrastructure for government and private sectors. The disruption affects a significant portion of the country’s internet backbone, impacting both public administration and commercial operations. The scale of the outage highlights the vulnerability of centralized cloud providers to physical security threats.
EU Member of the European Parliament Tomáš Zdechovský noted a potential link between the Yandex outages and a sudden drop in communication from online accounts promoting far-right ideals in Germany. This observation suggests the impact extends beyond Russian borders, affecting international information ecosystems that rely on Yandex’s platform. The incident underscores the interdependence of digital services and physical infrastructure stability.
As of the latest updates, Yandex’s Console, API, IAM, Container Registry, databases, S3 storage, and Kubernetes services are available but experiencing performance or availability issues. Compute, AI Studio, and security services are only partially available, while the Monium service remains completely offline. Yandex explicitly stated that its technical-supported communication channels may be unstable during this emergency operating mode.
Our take on the response
- Yandex acknowledged the instability of its remaining resources and explicitly advised customers to use alternative disaster recovery plans.
- The company provided granular status updates on specific services, distinguishing between fully offline, partially available, and degraded services.
- Yandex confirmed the physical cause of the outage and reported no injuries, providing clear context for the service disruptions.
What to do and how to stay safe: Yandex
- Verify that your organization has active disaster recovery plans that do not rely solely on Yandex Cloud infrastructure.
- Monitor Yandex’s status page for updates on service restoration, particularly for critical services like S3 storage and databases.
- Prepare for potential instability in technical communication channels by establishing alternative contact methods with vendors and partners.
- Review data backup strategies to ensure files are accessible even if primary cloud storage performance is degraded or offline.
Step-by-step guide: Access Key Rotation: Real Security Gains vs Operational Drag
General security guidance from the NetSec Tribune newsroom. It is not confirmed advice from the organisations named in this story.
Frequently asked questions
Which Yandex data centers were damaged by drone attacks?
The data centers in Sasovo, Kaluga, and Vladimir were attacked on October 8, 9, and 11 respectively, according to BleepingComputer.
Are any Yandex cloud services still fully operational?
No services are fully stable; most are available with performance issues, some are partially available, and Monium is offline.
Has Yandex provided a timeline for restoring full services?
Yandex stated it cannot provide a reliable service-restoration timeline due to the unstable nature of the remaining resources.
