Ukraine just put “Russia’s Google” on the casualty list. Ukrainian drone strikes knocked out two of five Yandex data centers, leaving the search giant scrambling to keep its AI chatbot and other services online, Ars Technica reported Oct. 9, 2026 (citing Reuters).
Strikes hit facilities in the Sasovo and Kaluga regions on Oct. 8–9. Sasovo houses two of Yandex’s three supercomputers used to train YandexGPT. Firepoint said its FP-1 one-way attack drones hit the Kaluga site — Yandex’s largest. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called it a “symmetrical response” after Russian drones hammered Ukrainian data centers and knocked mobile and internet service for thousands since late September.
Yandex said no employees were hurt but acknowledged service disruptions. Russian users hit snags on media sites, Ivi streaming, T-Bank, and Russian Railways, Meduza reported via Ars. Dating, real-estate, self-publishing, and even a Premier League club site wobbled too, per Reuters.
Translation: in 2026, the cloud is a front line — and training GPUs are fair game.
Sources: Ars Technica (Reuters / Meduza)
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