Ukrainian Drones Strike Russian Yandex AI Data Centers, Kyiv Calls It 'Tit-for-Tat'

Ukrainian drones struck two core data centers of Russian tech giant Yandex within the past 48 hours. According to Al Jazeera, the Ukrainian military extended its strike range to Russian technology infrastructure in response to Russia's continued attacks on Ukrainian digital infrastructure.

Yandex said in a statement that one of its AI data centers in Kaluga Region (southwest of Moscow) was hit by drones and partially paralyzed. The company said its team worked "day and night to keep services running," admitting that "it is not easy."

The day before, Ukrainian forces struck another Yandex data center in Sasovo, Ryazan Region. According to Al Jazeera, the site houses two of the three supercomputers Yandex uses for AI model R&D—the key hardware foundation of the company's core AI research capabilities. Yandex operates under close supervision of the Russian government, and its apps and social media network are considered daily essentials by many Russians.

Following the strike on Ryazan Region, Zelensky said: "We always respond in a mirror-image manner… Everyone knows they have been hitting our data centers and will continue to do so. We are responding. I cannot disclose full details."

Strikes also target Russia's missile production system

The Ukrainian military said it struck three facilities within Russia linked to missile production overnight, including a plant in Tver Region producing missile components and a facility in Nizhny Novgorod Region responsible for dismantling intercontinental ballistic missiles. Ukraine's General Staff said in a Telegram statement that the strike on the Nizhny Novgorod ICBM dismantlement center was aimed at undermining Russia's ability to obtain explosives and rocket fuel.

According to Zelensky, the Lukoil Ukhta refinery, some 1,900 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, was also within the strike range. Local officials said a factory in Ledkino, Tver Region, caught fire in a drone strike, but the blaze was quickly extinguished; the governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region said one serviceman was killed while repelling the attack and that damage to infrastructure from drone debris was "minimal"—a claim that stands in stark contrast to the strike effects claimed by the Ukrainian side.

The cycle of pressure on civilian facilities

Over the past month, Russia has repeatedly struck Ukrainian data centers and telecom infrastructure, including targets in central Kyiv. According to Al Jazeera, the damage caused by the attacks forced some services to be suspended, and about 100,000 households temporarily lost internet after one attack.

Russian airstrikes continue to cause civilian casualties. Regional defense official Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram that overnight airstrikes killed one person and wounded seven in the city of Zaporizhzhia. The Russian Defense Ministry separately said it had struck a cargo ship at the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Mykolaiv on the grounds that the vessel was used to supply the Ukrainian military.

Russia insists that it strikes only military targets, but civilian casualties in Zaporizhzhia and strikes on data centers in central Kyiv both point to civilian and civilian-linked facilities. This cycle of strikes, initiated by Russia and targeting the other side's digital infrastructure, has been followed by Ukraine with a "mirror response"; ordinary people on both sides are bearing the brunt.