Zelensky: Ukraine has answered data center strikes by hitting a Yandex facility in Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine is hitting back at Russian strikes, including those on data centers. He was commenting on a Ukrainian attack on a Yandex data center in Russia's Ryazan region, according to RBC-Ukraine.

"Data centers — you all know they've been hitting our data centers and they still are. We hit back. I can't give you all the details," Zelensky told journalists.

He also pointed to a Russian strike on Pryluky that killed 29 people, five of them children, and a strike on Kramatorsk that killed more than 30. Zelensky said Ukraine would respond to these attacks, but stressed that Kyiv would never target children.

The Sasovo strike

Overnight on October 8, Ukrainian forces used drones to hit a Yandex data center in the town of Sasovo, Ryazan region. A fire broke out. Nobody was injured, but the data center stopped operating entirely. By the evening of October 8, Yandex said it still could not say whether the equipment could be restored, as the extent of the damage to the infrastructure was still being assessed.

Following the strike, users reported disruptions to Yandex services, media websites and other services run by Avito, IVI, MegaFon, Russian Railways, T-Bank and several real estate developers.

Russian attacks on data centers

Russia has regularly struck data centers in Ukraine in recent weeks. Since late September, Russian forces have damaged or destroyed data centers belonging to at least eight companies. Russia's Defense Ministry has described these strikes as "a forced digital detox."