Cloudflare data shows bot traffic from Yandex's network has collapsed to just 0.4% of its two-week peak following a third Ukrainian drone strike on the company's data centers. Earlier strikes hit a Sasovo facility housing two supercomputers and a larger campus in Kaluga, while Yandex Cloud's status page lists at least 84 services currently offline. NetBlocks reports Yandex Cloud traffic down to 30% and Yandex LLC traffic down to 63%.
Ukraine struck Yandex data centers in Sasovo and Kaluga on October 8 and 9, knocking out two of the company's five facilities, according to Reuters. Firepoint's FP-1 drones hit the Kaluga site, Yandex's largest, while the Sasovo facility housed supercomputers used to train its YandexGPT AI model. Yandex reported no injuries but confirmed service disruptions, with Russian users unable to access apps including Ivi, T-Bank and Russian Railways.
Sea and aerial drones struck three commercial vessels in the exclusive economic zones of NATO members Bulgaria and Romania between October 5-6, sinking two ships and damaging a third. At least two sailors were killed, with one crew member still missing and others rescued or hospitalized. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev called the strikes an unacceptable violation of international and maritime law, while EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said the circumstances remain under investigation.
Russian jet-powered drones have increasingly targeted Ukrainian data centers, causing widespread Internet outages and disrupting mobile services, especially in Kyiv. Ukrainian officials warn that these attacks threaten the country's digital infrastructure and could impact public services and the economy. The campaign has intensified over recent weeks, with multiple providers and facilities being hit within days, indicating a strategic effort to weaken Ukraine’s digital resilience.
In Mykolaiv, Ukraine, Danish government-funded off-grid solar arrays and batteries now power an underground water pump in an eastern suburb, supplying residents with drinking water even after Russian strikes knocked out centralized power plants nationwide. The city has also installed five solar-powered desalination systems that convert saline or polluted water into drinking water when sunlight is available, switching to grid power at night or on cloudy days.
Russian military strikes on Ukrainian data center infrastructure caused temporary outages at piracy torrent trackers 1337x and NordicQuality, both of which rely on Ukrainian hosting. Companies including Virtual Systems, MiroHost Ukraine, CosmoNova, DataGroup, CityHost and telecom firms KyivStar and Vodafone Ukraine were also affected by strikes clustered mainly around Kyiv. Both torrent sites have since come back online.
Scientists are racing to protect coral reefs ahead of a forecast global mass bleaching event driven by record ocean temperatures and a strengthening El Niño. Restoration teams are testing methods including breeding corals bred for greater heat and acid tolerance, applying microbial and nutrient treatments, and using underwater speakers to attract coral larvae to degraded reefs.
A commentary piece discusses how even celebrated experts and public figures sometimes make confident but questionable claims outside their expertise. It cites tech investor Jason Calacanis's podcast remarks, including his view that the Russia-Ukraine war could be resolved through land swaps and that governments shouldn't regulate mergers and acquisitions.
A Russian drone struck a business centre in Kyiv's Solomianskyi district on September 25, killing four people and injuring seven, while damaging a data center belonging to telecom firm Datagroup. Datagroup said no employees were hurt and customer data was safe, with services shifted to backup sites. Russia's defence ministry confirmed it targeted the facility, alleging it processed military intelligence, and separately claimed strikes on other providers including New Telco, United DC, Kyivstar and Parkovyi, with Ukraine's digital ministry reporting about 100,000 households lost internet access after related attacks.
Russia has begun striking data centers and telecom infrastructure across Ukraine, including a Kyiv facility hit by a drone that killed four people. Russia says it targeted Datagroup and other providers such as New-Telco, United DC, Kyivstar and Parkovyi, claiming military use, while Ukrainian officials say the strikes have knocked out internet access for about 100,000 households.
A visit to Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces mission control room featured commander Robert 'Magyar' Brovdi, who issued a warning to the United States and NATO. The account, published as an opinion piece, details operations inside the drone command center.
A report from inside Kyiv's tech scene describes secretive startups, government engineers, and soldiers collaborating in ordinary-looking buildings and testing fields to rapidly develop new weapons technology. The reporting focuses on figures like Serhii Kupriienko, who is developing systems he says represent the next phase of warfare, built under wartime urgency and secrecy.
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