On the night of 9 October 2026, drones attacked the data centre of the Russian technology company Yandex in Kaluga. According to a report by Kommersant, citing the Interfax news agency, part of the company’s server infrastructure was damaged, and several modules were completely knocked out of action. This is the second reported attack on the company’s data centres in two days: on 8 October, its data centre in Sasovo, in the Ryazan Region, came to a complete standstill following a fire. The consequences of the latest attack and the timeframe for restoring the damaged equipment are currently being assessed.
Briefly about the main points
- On 9 October, drones attacked the Yandex data centre in Kaluga, Russia.
- According to reports in the Russian media, several server infrastructure modules have been completely taken out of action.
- The Kaluga data centre is one of the company’s largest facilities in Russia.
Yandex’s server infrastructure has been damaged in Kaluga«
On the morning of 9 October, Russian media reported a new drone attack on digital infrastructure sites. This time, the Yandex data centre in Kaluga was targeted.
According to the Telegram channel of the *Kommersant* newspaper, citing information from *Interfax*, part of the data centre’s infrastructure was damaged as a result of the attack. Several of its modules have been completely knocked out of action.
Such modules provide space for server equipment and support the operation of associated engineering systems. Any loss of their operational capability may limit the data centre’s computing capacity and necessitate the transfer of the workload to other sites.
At the same time, the exact number of damaged modules, their purpose and the extent of the damage have not yet been specified. Nor is there any confirmation that the entire Kaluga data centre has ceased operations.
The Kaluga data centre is one of the largest in Russia
«Yandex» is developing a large-scale data centre in the «Grabtsovo» industrial park in the Kaluga region. The company announced the construction of the facility in 2022. During the project presentation, it was described as Yandex’s largest data centre in Russia.
The main stated specifications of the complex:
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design electrical capacity — 63 MW;
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capacity — over 3,800 server racks;
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the complex covers an area of approximately 130,000 square metres;
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The cooling system is designed to use outside air.
The facility is primarily intended for the development of the Yandex Cloud platform, which provides computing power, data storage and other digital services. Its infrastructure is used to house the server equipment required for the operation of online projects and corporate information systems.
Second attack on Yandex’s data centres in two days
Reports of a strike in Kaluga emerged the day after a large-scale attack on another of the company’s facilities. On the night of 8 October, drones struck Yandex data centre« in the town of Sasovo, Ryazan Oblast.
A fire then broke out on the company’s premises, damaging part of the infrastructure. The company officially confirmed that the data centre had ceased operations entirely. Following the incident, users experienced disruptions to a number of digital services.
According to Reuters, this centre housed two of the company’s three supercomputers, which were used to develop artificial intelligence models.
The Kaluga Region reported 26 drones overnight
Governor of the Kaluga Region Vladislav Shapsha stated that on the night of 9 October, Russian air defences had allegedly shot down 26 drones. According to him, the attacks were recorded over Kaluga, as well as in the Maloyaroslavets, Peremyshl and Ferzikovo municipal districts.
The Russian authorities have confirmed damage to infrastructure facilities in Kaluga, without specifying their names. The region also reported ten people injured, five of whom were hospitalised. However, there is no confirmation that these people were injured directly on the premises of the Yandex data centre.
