Third Yandex Data Center Shut Down After Consecutive Days of Ukrainian Drone Strikes

Analysis
Ukrainian drones will likely strike at least one more Yandex-operated data center, with Yandex or Russian officials confirming damage, by October 26. Confidence is high because three strikes in four days show a repeatable pattern, and Kyiv has publicly tied the campaign to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centers. Surviving facilities now carry the displaced load, and Yandex calls its remaining Cloud configuration unstable. Sasovo matters most, since it hosts two of the three supercomputers used to train Yandex's AI model, so its restoration sets the pace for model development. Damage extent rests largely on company statements and unverified imagery. The three strikes may instead be an opportunistic burst against the most exposed sites, ended by air defense hardening and workload dispersal. If another strike is confirmed, Russian cloud-dependent operators and Western cyber and sanctions planners should treat Yandex infrastructure as a sustained target and shift to redundancy and impact assessment.