Yandex suspends cloud zone after drone strike sparks data centre fire
Yandex has taken its ru-central1-b cloud availability zone offline after a drone attack caused a fire at its data centre in Sasovo, south-east of Moscow. The incident matters because the facility supports cloud services, and Yandex says it may not be possible to restore operations in the near future.
The company said data centre operations had stopped completely and advised affected customers to use alternative recovery plans, including its bare-metal servers. Yandex has not identified who carried out the attack; Ukrainian media reported President Volodymyr Zelensky saying Ukraine responds in kind when Russia attacks Ukrainian data centres. The incident highlights the risks to data centres during conflict and the resilience challenge for Russian businesses, which have fewer providers and limited access to foreign cloud services because of sanctions.
- A drone attack halted a Yandex cloud zone in Sasovo.
- Yandex says restoring service soon may not be possible.
- Sanctions limit Russian firms’ options for cloud resilience.
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Yandex is Russia's largest internet company, providing cloud computing services that businesses rely on to store data and run applications. Cloud availability zones are separate data centres in different locations, ensuring companies can continue operating if one facility becomes unavailable.
A drone attack has damaged one of Yandex's data centres in Sasovo, south-east of Moscow. The company has closed the affected cloud zone and advised customers to switch to alternative services to keep their operations running.
The incident demonstrates how vulnerable critical technology infrastructure has become during armed conflict. Russian companies like Yandex face particular challenges because international sanctions limit their access to foreign cloud providers and equipment, making them dependent on fewer domestic alternatives.
Both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Those supporting such military operations argue that data centres serving a belligerent nation's state and military functions constitute critical infrastructure enabling that nation's war effort, making them legitimate military targets. When Russia has attacked Ukrainian infrastructure, Ukrainian military response against Russian facilities supporting Moscow's operations represents justified retaliation in kind and an effective means of degrading an aggressor's operational capacity whilst minimising broader escalation.
The case against
Critics contend that civilian data centre infrastructure serves numerous private businesses, ordinary citizens, and essential services beyond direct military support. They argue that such attacks violate international humanitarian law's principles of distinction and proportionality—the widespread disruption to uninvolved users and civilian enterprises outweighs plausible military advantage gained. Protecting civilian infrastructure preserves the possibility of post-conflict economic recovery and limits unnecessary suffering.
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Originally published by The Register as “Ukrainian drone attack takes out Russian datacenter”.