Russian internet giant Yandex suspended operations at one of its major data centers on Thursday after a drone attack, as Ukraine continues to target the country’s infrastructure.
Yandex said in a statement to CNBC that the attack caused a fire at its data center in Sasovo, Ryazan region in western Russia, affecting some of its infrastructure. It added that the data center has completely ceased operations and users may not be able to use some Yandex services.
“There were no casualties and emergency services are on scene responding to the aftermath,” Yandex said.
Yandex, headquartered in Moscow, google We offer Russia’s most widely used search engine in this country. We also developed YandexGPT, the region’s leading generative AI model.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the Yandex attack, but in recent months it has stepped up attacks on Russian infrastructure, including energy, including targeting Russian oil refineries, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said were being used to “finance wars and the murder of Ukrainians.”
Ukraine also stepped up attacks on Russian retail giant Wildberry, a key part of its consumer infrastructure.
President Zelensky last week said his country would double down on attacks on Russian oil refineries in response to Moscow’s new air campaign aimed at forcing citizens to leave Kiev and other cities.
