Drone strike takes modules offline at Yandex's huge Kaluga data center
A Ukrainian drone attack hit a Yandex data center in Kaluga, Russia, two days after a similar strike on a Yandex facility in Sasovo. Russian state media said multiple modules at the 1.4 million-square-foot, 63 MW campus were completely removed from service. The site, which has more than 3,800 server racks and opened in 2023, hosts Yandex internal services and supports its cloud expansion.
The Kaluga site sits in Grabtsevo industrial park and was planned as Yandex’s biggest Russian data center. It began operating during 2023’s latter half, spans roughly 130,000 square meters, draws 63 MW, and contains over 3,800 racks. It houses Yandex internal services and was intended to support cloud growth. Whether it was the intended target remains unconfirmed.
The strike came two days after an attack on Yandex’s Sasovo facility. That earlier incident disrupted Yandex Cloud, with users reporting trouble across Mail, Disk, Documents, Pay, and Market, though Yandex said core services stayed available. TASS later said several Kaluga modules there had been rendered entirely inoperable.
The damage could affect Russian users and businesses that depend on Yandex services, especially cloud customers and those using Mail, Disk, Documents, Pay, or Market. Repeated strikes on data infrastructure may heighten concerns about service reliability, data availability, and recovery times. The broader public could experience intermittent disruptions, while operators may face pressure to harden facilities and diversify capacity. The long-term impact remains uncertain.