Ukrainian attacks on Russian data centers have disrupted online services and building access, The Independent reported, carrying the effects of the war into daily life for residents.
The outlet reported three strikes on Yandex facilities over the past week. Yandex said damage to its infrastructure left its data center in the Vladimir region unable to operate Sunday.
The Independent described disruptions to email, taxi apps and dating sites. Some Moscow residents could not open building gates controlled by a company using Yandex infrastructure, the outlet said. It also reported problems with music streaming, food deliveries and cloud-computing services.
Alyona Zhiganova, founder of travel agency Proadventure, told the Financial Times that she feared losing a decade of material from her website, including databases, photographs and reviews. The Independent also reported concern that balances in Yandex Pay had disappeared. Yandex said the money was safe.
The Independent reported that Ukrainian drones struck a Sberbank data center in the Saratov region Wednesday. Russia’s largest bank said its systems were operating normally.
Ukraine has framed its attacks on Russian data infrastructure as retaliation for Russian strikes against Ukrainian data centers. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters last week, “We always respond in mirror-like fashion.”
The Independent traced the Russian campaign to late September and reported that phone connections failed for thousands of households in Kyiv. Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure the previous winter left hundreds of thousands without heat and electricity, the outlet reported.
Asked about compensation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the government was discussing the matter, but officials had not determined whether outages caused users financial losses. He said Yandex had begun responding to the disruption.
The Independent characterized the strikes as part of a campaign to put pressure on Russia’s government by making the war’s effects more immediate for the public. It said whether outages would prompt wider public discontent remained uncertain.
