Ukrainian strikes damage three of Yandex's six data centres, and Russia's 'sovereign internet' feels it

What's going on? Ukrainian strikes over the past week badly damaged three of Yandex's six data centres, the Financial Times reports. Two were shut down completely and a third lost several modules. Kyiv presents the strikes as retaliation for Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres.

The fallout: Yandex mail, taxis and bus timetables were disrupted. Yandex Pay balances appeared to vanish for some users; the company says "the money is safe". Courtyard barrier gates in Moscow run by one company on Yandex infrastructure stopped working, as did the Twinby dating app and services at fast-food chain Vkusno i tochka. Alyona Zhiganova, founder of Proadventure, lost a website she had run for ten years. Outages spilled into Kazakhstan, where Yandex has more than 90% market share in the two largest cities, as well as Uzbekistan and Belarus.

Why it matters: Since 2014 the Kremlin has pushed data localisation and a "sovereign internet", and in 2024 Yandex's Russian business was sold, under pressure, to investors with ties to Putin (the former Dutch parent now operates as Nebius). That concentrated a huge share of Russia's digital life on one company's servers. "Russia has become a victim of its own policy," said Alena Epifanova of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). It is a rare real-world case of physical attacks on a national cloud, as data centres become strategic infrastructure everywhere.

What's not known: An insider told the FT functionality returned "quickly" but services are slower, and full capacity will take several months to restore. Yandex has not given a damage estimate. Russia's digital ministry says authorities will "protect these facilities"; President Putin had earlier made businesses responsible for their own anti-drone defence.

Source: Financial Times (Anastasia Stognei and Katya Arenina, 14 Oct 2026)