A drone strike completely halted operations at a Yandex data center in Vladimir, triggering widespread outages across Russian cloud infrastructure, applications, and popular digital services. Regional officials confirmed a resulting fire and local evacuations while users faced cascading network disruptions.
Power Failures and Cloud Infrastructure Collapse in Vladimir
Early morning reports flagged disruptions within the ru-central-a availability zone as power supplies failed at the facility. Yandex Cloud infrastructure housed in the company’s Vladimir data center experienced a total outage after the site took a hit from unmanned aerial vehicles. The facility, situated in the Energetik microdistrict, originally opened its first section in 2017 before expanding in March 2026 with a new data center unit with a capacity of 40 MW, designed to handle 2,800 server racks.
The shutdown severed access to an array of cloud services. Users lost connectivity to Yandex Dom, Yandex Music, and Telemost, alongside the broader cloud infrastructure of Yandex Cloud. Governor Alexander Avdeev of the Vladimir region confirmed the drone strike on the infrastructure object, noting that a fire broke out and prompted the evacuation of residents living in nearby houses.
Cascading Service Failures Across the Runet
The paralysis of the Vladimir facility rippled outward, plunging parts of the Russian internet into a widespread service disruption. Countless websites, online platforms, and mobile apps stumbled offline or suffered severe slowdowns as the cloud infrastructure failed to route traffic.
The fallout extended far beyond core Yandex properties like Kinopoisk and Auto.ru, also hitting platforms such as InSales, GGSel, Ivideon, Masters, Express Tochka Ru, and Sravni.ru.
The disruption additionally impacted the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision, alongside multiplayer titles like War Thunder and fitness networks such as DDX Fitness.
The fallout extended far beyond core Yandex properties like Kinopoisk and Auto.ru.
Operational hiccups even reached transportation hubs, with the Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg noting technical trouble with its online systems amid the broader digital blackout.
Multi-Region Drone Attacks Target Russian Facilities
The Vladimir strike occurred during a wider nighttime wave of aerial attacks across Russia.
Yandex infrastructure has absorbed multiple blows during these security incidents. Earlier drone strikes ignited a fire at the company’s data center in Sasovo, located in the Ryazan region, which affected a portion of the infrastructure. Company representatives later stated they could not confirm the possibility of restoring the equipment at the Sasovo site. Additionally, part of the infrastructure of the Yandex data center in Kaluga was damaged in a drone attack.
Regional governors reported similar infrastructure pressures elsewhere. In Salavat, Bashkiria, a targeted facility sustained a localized fire during an early morning attack, though city head Marat Zagidullin confirmed that the enterprise continues to operate without any dead or injured workers.
