Ukraine drone strikes on Russian data centres disrupt Yandex traffic by 94%

Ukrainian drone strikes hit Russia's largest data centre, owned by Sberbank, and three Yandex data centres, causing Yandex traffic to drop 94%. The attacks highlight the vulnerability of physical communication infrastructure and raise questions about Russia's digital sovereignty.

Ukrainian drone strikes this month hit Russia's largest data centre, owned by bank and technology company Sberbank, following earlier attacks on three data centres belonging to tech giant Yandex, often referred to as “Russia’s Google”. After those attacks, Yandex’s traffic dropped 94 per cent, with users experiencing heavy disruption to features such as email, search, navigation, music, ride hailing, marketplace and financial services.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes had made it “easier to breathe on many social media platforms” by reducing Russian disinformation and bot activity. Later reports have cast doubt on Zelensky’s claim. Either way, the incident highlights the role of physical communication infrastructure in the online world and raises questions over what “digital sovereignty” really means.

Data centres are an unconventional military target, but that may be changing as their importance grows. Attacking data centres may disrupt an enemy’s military operations as well as the ordinary civilian services that rely on these facilities. In Russia, these disruptions may slow down the economy in the long term, undermining its ability to continue war.

Ukraine’s strikes came after Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres and internet service providers. They also follow a precedent set by Iran earlier this year when it hit data centres in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in response to American attacks. The Middle East data centres were run by Amazon Web Services.

Russia’s pursuit of “digital sovereignty” has enabled it to censor online information and isolate Russian users from global internet services. Russia passed laws requiring certain data to be stored locally in 2015, followed by international sanctions after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. As a result, Russia’s options for maintaining backup infrastructure abroad have been significantly limited.

There are over 100 data centres operating on Russian territory, few with backups and resilience plans in place. Concentrating all digital operations in a relatively small number of physical sites creates a vulnerability. Once this infrastructure is hit, rebuilding can be slow and challenging, especially as Russia is reliant on China to supply advanced semiconductors.

The data centre attacks are a reminder that Russian internet services – including influence operations – depend on physical infrastructure. Whether or not the strikes have led to a significant reduction in disinformation bot activity this time around, targeting the physical sources of disinformation may still be an effective way to contain it.