Drone strikes hit two Yandex data centres, knocking YandexGPT training site offline
In brief
- Drones hit Yandex's Sasovo data centre on October 8 and its Kaluga site on October 9.
- Sasovo held the Lyapunov and Chervonenkis supercomputers used to train YandexGPT.
- Yandex Cloud outages hit clients including Russian Railways and MegaFon.
- Yandex shares fell about 4% on the Moscow Exchange after the second strike.
- Zelenskyy called the strikes reciprocal, retaliation for Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres.
Sasovo goes dark, Kaluga takes partial damage
The first strike hit Sasovo on October 8. It started a significant fire and forced a complete operational shutdown of the facility, Crypto Briefing reported. Sasovo isn't a minor site, either. It housed two supercomputers (named Lyapunov and Chervonenkis) that Yandex used to train YandexGPT, its AI model.
Kaluga was hit a day later.
The damage there was partial, according to the report: several modules were disabled, but the whole facility didn't go offline. Ukrainian drone manufacturer Firepoint confirmed its drones took part in the Kaluga attack.
Cloud clients feel the outage
Yandex, a company often described as "Russia's Google," acknowledged the attacks and warned that its services could be disrupted. The strikes caused temporary outages of Yandex Cloud, and the knock-on effects reached business clients including Russian Railways and MegaFon, according to Crypto Briefing. It's not just a consumer search problem, then. The cloud side of the business has enterprise clients, and they felt it too.
Can the damaged hardware be fixed? Yandex was still evaluating whether the equipment could be restored at all, the outlet reported.
The market didn't wait for an answer. Yandex shares fell about 4% on the Moscow Exchange after the second strike.
Data centres as military targets
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the strikes as reciprocal. He framed them as retaliation for earlier Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres.
Research cited in the report pointed to a possible shift in the conflict, with both sides targeting each other's digital and AI assets.
That's the angle worth watching here, since the Sasovo site wasn't just storage or web hosting (it was where Yandex trained YandexGPT on two dedicated supercomputers).
Frequently asked questions
Which Yandex data centres were hit by drones?
Drones hit Yandex's Sasovo facility in the Ryazan region on October 8 and its Kaluga site, southwest of Moscow, on October 9, according to Crypto Briefing. The Sasovo strike forced a complete shutdown. At Kaluga, several modules were disabled but the facility didn't go fully offline.
Why does the Sasovo strike matter for YandexGPT?
Sasovo housed two supercomputers, Lyapunov and Chervonenkis, which Yandex used to train its YandexGPT AI model. The strike started a significant fire and shut the facility down completely. Yandex was still evaluating whether the damaged equipment could be restored.
How did the strikes affect Yandex Cloud customers?
The strikes caused temporary outages of Yandex Cloud services, Crypto Briefing reported. The disruption reached clients including Russian Railways and MegaFon, and Yandex warned that its services could be disrupted.
