American Marconi Wireless News - Russian data centre hit by drone in first for Ukraine war

Images posted on social media showed thick, black smoke pouring from the roof of the building, which the company said was in the central Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow.

It is more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Ukraine's Kharkiv region. But Russia and Ukraine have intensified long-range strikes on each other in recent months, with recent Russian attacks targeting Ukrainian data centres and logistics warehouses.

The former head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation said Kyiv was responsible for the night-time hit on the Yandex centre, writing on Telegram: "Two can play at this game".

Yandex is Russia's largest technology company.

Often dubbed "Russia's Google", the firm runs the country's most popular search engine, as well as a food-ordering and taxi application used by tens of millions of people across the Russian-speaking world.

"A drone attack caused a fire at the Yandex data centre in Sasovo, affecting part of its infrastructure," a Yandex spokesperson told AFP, without specifying the origin of the drone.

"There are no casualties, and emergency services are on site dealing with the aftermath. The data centre has stopped operating entirely, and some Yandex services may be unavailable to users," the spokesperson added.

In another statement on Thursday evening, the company's press office said Yandex was "still assessing the extent of the damage to our infrastructure".

"At this stage, we cannot confirm whether the equipment at our Sasovo data center can be restored," it added.

- Major outages -

Ryazan regional governor Pavel Malkov said on Telegram Thursday that two Ukrainian drones had been shot down over the region overnight, noting that "the roof of a business caught fire" in the Sasovo area.

Sasovo is about 300 kilometres (186 miles) east of Moscow.

Downdetector Russia, a website that monitors internet outages, showed a large spike in user complaints beginning in the early hours of Thursday.

Russian media reported major outages throughout the day, with users unable to access websites of key transport services and online shopping platforms.

Andriy Kovalenko, former head of Ukraine's official Center for Countering Disinformation, posted an image on Telegram purporting to show the attack.

"Two can play at this game. Ukrainian forces struck a Yandex data centre in the Ryazan region," he wrote.

Data centres house IT infrastructure, often servers and electronic equipment that ensure the smooth running of internet services.

Moscow began its Ukraine offensive in February 2022.

Y.Kobayashi--AMWN