Ukrainian drones struck three Yandex data centers between Oct. 8 and 11, shutting down two facilities and damaging a third before automated traffic from the Russian technology giant’s network plunged.
The attacks hit Sasovo, Kaluga, and Vladimir, disrupting cloud computing and consumer services used across Russia. Yandex acknowledged the damage, while Kyiv Post reported that the outages affected databases, applications, and businesses relying on its servers.
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
The disruption also prompted reports of a quieter political internet, with commentators in Poland and Israel describing fewer inflammatory accounts and less apparent support for some Kremlin-friendly movements.
President Volodymyr Zelensky linked the strikes to that change on Monday, Oct. 12, saying there was “less hatred, less discord, and fewer provocations because there were fewer bots,” according to Interfax-Ukraine.
Concurrently, Cloudflare Radar recorded a sharp fall in automated requests from Yandex’s network.
How Moscow turns divisions into influence
Russia’s online campaigns seek to make Kremlin-friendly messages look like the opinions of ordinary voters, using fabricated identities, imitation news websites, and coordinated posting to amplify existing grievances.
A US Justice Department investigation in 2024 identified 968 accounts in an AI-assisted bot farm developed by an RT employee and backed by an FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) officer. Many posed as Americans while distributing pro-Russian material.
Other Topics of Interest
Zelensky Warns China Is Helping Russia Develop Starlink Rival
Zelensky has warned that China is providing support to help Russia develop its Rassvet satellite system, comparable to the Starlink.
In a separate action against the Doppelganger operation, US authorities described cloned news sites and fictitious profiles used to weaken support for Ukraine. Together, those methods disguise who produced a message and manufacture the appearance of public agreement.
The political consequences have already reached national elections.
In Romania, the Constitutional Court annulled the 2024 presidential election after intelligence documents alleged Russian interference and coordinated online promotion of far-right candidate Calin Georgescu, who opposed military aid to Ukraine and unexpectedly won the first round.
The European Commission subsequently opened proceedings against TikTok, examining risks involving its recommendation systems, coordinated manipulation, and paid political content.
Britain has meanwhile returned to the question of Moscow’s role in Brexit. On Sunday, Oct. 11, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he had received confirmation that Russia interfered in the 2016 referendum after seeking answers on entering Downing Street.
His acknowledgment followed a 2020 parliamentary intelligence report criticizing the failure to assess possible interference. Burnham did not disclose the underlying evidence or establish how it affected the result.
Poland and Israel report a quieter internet
In Poland, Russian campaigns have exploited disputes over refugees, history, and military aid to intensify anti-Ukrainian sentiment online.
An August assessment by the Polish Institute of International Affairs reported 364,000 Polish-language posts containing extremely hateful terms directed at Ukrainians in its May-July analysis, generating 1.2 million reactions, comments, and shares. The researchers described Russian amplification of existing tensions, rather than attributing all hostility to Moscow.
After the Yandex attacks, military commentator Jarosław Wolski described a “de-Russified internet,” reporting fewer purportedly Polish accounts attacking Ukrainians and fewer purportedly Ukrainian accounts attacking Poles.
He also claimed a 56% decline in online support for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), attaching a graph showing sharp falls in daily activity. While the screenshot provides the general observable trend, it does not feature an identifiable data source or account sample. Besides, activity cannot be equated with voter support.
Meanwhile, former Ukrainian lawmaker Borislav Bereza reported that accounts posting aggressive political comments in Russian and Hebrew had fallen silent, citing Israeli observers.
As the country is approaching its Oct. 27 election, Ynet reported that the Shin Bet had established a dedicated election-security team, with foreign cyber operations and political bots among the threats being monitored.
Kyiv Post has previously examined how Russian propaganda combines anti-Israel and anti-Ukrainian narratives, including antisemitic conspiracies and attempts to depict both countries as fascist.
France’s next election is already in the crosshairs
France, which holds pivotal presidential elections next year, is likewise in the focus.
Ahead of the election, Russia-linked campaigns have targeted Edouard Philippe, Gabriel Attal, and Raphael Glucksmann with fabricated health claims and scandals, sometimes impersonating established French news outlets.
As Kyiv Post’s analysis of Marine Le Pen’s presidential bid explained, divisions among pro-Ukraine candidates could benefit her and reshape French policy toward Kyiv. Le Pen has since ruled out further financial assistance to Ukraine if elected, while leaving room for military assistance and training.
Yandex turns to rival providers to restore services
While acknowledging immediate impact, Yandex is already arranging for affected customers to move their data and applications to competing cloud providers while engineers assess the damaged facilities.
The company said it had reached agreements with Selectel, K2Cloud, and VK Cloud to accelerate those transfers, providing additional technical teams, simplified onboarding, and flexible financial terms.
Yandex said rehearsals for the prolonged loss of an entire data-center zone had helped it switch critical workloads after the attacks.
In its own statement, Yandex said teams were working around the clock to restore services and assess the infrastructure, but could not give a timetable for bringing the damaged equipment back online.
Moving customers elsewhere can restore access before the damaged facilities are repaired, meaning that malign online operations may resume soon.
Lesia Dubenko is a Ukrainian political scientist and analyst. A graduate of Lund University (MSc in European Affairs), she covers issues relating to international affairs, migration, and disinformation.