Ukraine has intensified its campaign against Russian infrastructure, hitting a third Yandex data center in four days, the company confirmed Sunday. The drone attack on the Vladimir data center, located east of Moscow, caused widespread outages across Yandex’s services, disrupting taxi orders and banking access for users in dozens of Russian cities, as well as in Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Armenia, according to Russian news outlet Astra. Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a long-range aerial conflict while ground forces remain largely stalled, over four and a half years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion began.
Yandex Cloud’s Telegram channel stated that the Vladimir facility’s infrastructure was damaged and operations had ceased completely. No injuries were reported, the company noted. Thursday saw a drone strike disable the company’s data center in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow. A day later, Ukrainian drones damaged a major Yandex facility in the Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, partly putting it out of service, Yandex said. The company, often likened to Russia’s Google, operates the country’s leading search engine and provides extensive digital services, including involvement in artificial intelligence development.
The latest strike coincided with U.S. President Donald Trump suggesting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should be replaced, claiming he lacks the ability to end the war and accusing him of contributing to high U.S. diesel prices. Trump, who announced a deal Friday to allow Russian diesel exports to the U.S. to address fuel costs before upcoming elections, has repeatedly urged Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian energy targets. He has blamed record U.S. diesel prices on Ukraine rather than global energy market disruptions caused by the war in Iran. Ukrainian and European officials expressed concern that the diesel deal could fund Russia’s military efforts.
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Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha pushed back against Trump’s criticism, asserting Zelenskyy has the support of the Ukrainian people and is fulfilling his duty effectively. “He has the support of the Ukrainian people, and they have the right to decide. Statements from abroad only confirm that he is doing his job well,” Sybiha wrote on X Saturday night.
Elsewhere, rescue operations concluded in Zaporizhzhia after a Russian bombing on Saturday, with the death toll reaching 20, including four children, according to former regional head Ivan Fedorov. Over 30 people were wounded, eight remaining hospitalized, local officials reported. A separate incident in Russia’s Bryansk border region resulted in one fatality and two injuries after a Ukrainian drone strike, local officials confirmed Sunday.
