English
Ukrainian drone and missile strikes targeting Russian data centers have disrupted banking services, digital payments and everyday technology access for millions of ordinary Russians. The attacks have hit facilities linked to Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, tech giant VK, and Yandex, the country’s dominant search and taxi platform. Analysts say the disruptions are a deliberate part of Ukraine’s broader strategy to make the cost of war felt at home by Russian civilians.
Drivers and Workers Feel the Impact
Valery, a 24-year-old taxi driver from Krasnodar, described the practical consequences firsthand. He had only been driving for Yandex for a few months, having previously worked at a packing center for Wildberries, the Russian retail giant whose warehouse Ukrainian drones struck in July. When the Yandex outages began, he said the app displayed error messages and sometimes dispatched multiple drivers to the same customer.
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While Yandex resolved some of those technical problems, Valery said a more serious issue remained. He could not withdraw the wages he had already earned through the platform. “If I can’t access my pay in another week or two, I will start looking for another job,” he said.
His situation reflects a wider pattern. The strikes on data centers have caused disruptions across transport, internet access and digital payment systems, affecting workers and consumers across Russia.
A Deliberate Strategy to Bring War Home
Analysts say the targeting of Russian data centers is not random. Keir Giles, an associate fellow at Chatham House, told NBC News that Ukraine has pursued this goal from the beginning of its campaign. “Ukraine’s campaign from the start has had as one of its objectives bringing home to ordinary Russians the fact that they are at war, and this involves consequences,” he said.
Giles added that the aim is for everyday Russians to connect the disruptions in their lives directly to their leaders’ decision to wage war. Therefore, civilian-facing platforms like Yandex make particularly effective targets.
Robert Tollast, a drone expert and researcher at the Royal United Services Institute in London, noted that Yandex also carries strategic value because of its role in shaping what Russians see and read online. Furthermore, Tollast pointed out that data centers now hold growing military importance. Both sides use battlefield data to improve operations and commanders’ situational awareness, potentially with AI-assisted planning tools.
Russian Government Response
The Kremlin acknowledged the disruptions but played down their severity. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was premature to discuss government financial support for those affected. He described Yandex as “strong and powerful,” despite the difficulties it faces.
Meanwhile, Minister of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev said Russian authorities were examining ways to better protect data centers following what he called an “unprecedented attack.” On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin held a meeting focused on strengthening digital security across Russia. However, Peskov said the meeting had no connection to the recent strikes on data centers.
Russia’s Infrastructure Is Concentrated and Vulnerable
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed last week that Ukraine struck Yandex in direct response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centers. He accused Moscow of trying to “leave Ukrainians without the internet.” He also claimed, without providing evidence, that disrupting Yandex made social media platforms easier to use by reducing the number of Russian bots. NBC News could not verify that claim.
Military analyst Mykhailo Samus, director of the New Geopolitics Research Network, explained why Russian data centers are particularly vulnerable. Ukraine has spread its own facilities across many dispersed locations. Russia, in contrast, concentrates much of its digital infrastructure in a small number of large facilities. As a result, a single successful strike can simultaneously knock out services covering transport, banking and internet access.
“Very easy and very important,” Samus said, summarizing Russia’s exposure to this type of attack.
