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TALAYINSIGHT
RegionEurasia

MediumII Cyber Warfare & Critical Infrastructure26 October 2026, Monday

Yandex moved its supercomputers as Moscow urges data centres underground

Ukrainian drones hit 3 of Yandex's 6 data centres in early October. The company said on 26 October that its 3 supercomputers were undamaged and had been moved to new sites, while a Russian ministry proposed underground construction for critical data centres.

Location: SASOVO

Meduza's 15 October analysis says Ukrainian drones hit the Sasovo site in Ryazan on the night of 7–8 October and Kaluga the following night. It puts a strike on Yandex's data centre in Vladimir on the night of 10–11 October. In its 26 October report, Meduza says Yandex announced that the Lyapunov, Galushkin and Chervonenkis supercomputers were undamaged and had been installed in new compute space. Experts quoted in the earlier analysis said the 3 machines may have been badly damaged by fire and smoke, and that replacing the NVIDIA chips could take 1–2 years. The company's statement and the expert assessment conflict; the damage could not be verified independently.

The Moscow Times reported on 26 October that the attacks caused temporary outages across Russia for taxi, food delivery, banking and Yandex Cloud corporate customers. Citing Kommersant, the report says the Ministry of Digital Development proposed underground construction for critical sites, blast-resistant structures, electronic warfare systems and coordination with the army and the National Guard. Putin said on 16 October that the attacks would be answered and ordered digital infrastructure to be protected. Ukraine said it was responding to Russian strikes on its own data centres.

The strikes reach physical logistics too. Data Insight figures carried by The Moscow Times record 45 incidents affecting at least 2.1 million square metres at Ozon and Wildberries warehouses since the end of June. Meduza notes that Chervonenkis ranked 19th on the list of the world's 500 most powerful supercomputers in 2021 and had fallen to 101st by June 2026; Kazakhstan's Alem sits at 104th.

Talay assessment

Bottom line

Ukraine is doing with drones what cyber operations could not. It is hitting the physical nodes of Russia's digital economy, the data centres and the e-commerce warehouses. The ministry's proposal for underground sites and electronic warfare shows Moscow treats this as a permanent threat. The most likely path is that the strikes continue and Russian data centre investment shifts towards expensive protection.

Likely effects

  • Russian digital economyNegative1–6 months

    Outages in taxi, payment and cloud services showed the data centres are a single point of failure; the cost of redundancy and distributed architecture rises.

  • Russian AI capacityNegative6 months+

    If supercomputer damage is confirmed, chip replacement could take 1–2 years and Russia could slip behind Kazakhstan on the list.

  • RetailNegativeWeeks

    The 45 warehouse incidents tighten stock and delivery capacity during the year-end sales season.

Possibilities, ranked

  1. 1
    Strikes continue60%

    Ukraine keeps hitting data centre and warehouse targets, and the outages recur intermittently.

    Watch: New outage or fire statements from Yandex, Ozon and Wildberries

  2. 2
    Mutual digital infrastructure truce25%

    Data centres join the restraint package alongside energy strikes at the Abu Dhabi round.

    Watch: The outcome text of the mid-November Abu Dhabi talks

  3. 3
    Heavy damage confirmed15%

    It emerges that the supercomputers were out of service for an extended period and Yandex pushes back its model timetable.

    Watch: The status of Russian systems on the November TOP500 list

Probabilities are calibrated judgement based on the sources, not measurement, and are revised as new information arrives. Not investment advice.

Market reaction

Indicators affected

  • Yandex data centres hit▼ 3 / 6
  • Warehouse space affected since June▼ 2.1 mn m²

Sources

  1. Meduza — Yandex moves all three of its supercomputers to new site after Ukrainian drone attacks
  2. Meduza — Ukrainian strikes on Yandex's data centers could set back Russia's AI development by years
  3. The Moscow Times — Yandex Supercomputers Unscathed After Ukrainian Strikes, Company Says
  4. The Moscow Times — Russian Retailers Warn of Smaller Black Friday Sales After E-Commerce Warehouse Drone Attacks
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