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Ukrainian drones struck data centers operated by Russian technology company Yandex on October 8 in Sasovo October 9 in Kaluga and October 11 in Vladimir according to multiple reports including those from Radio Free Europe and Euromaidan Press. The attacks represented a direct response to intensified Russian strikes on Ukrainian internet and data infrastructure that began in September a Ukrainian official told the Warsaw Security Forum. Yandex which is often described as Russia’s version of Google confirmed that operations at its Vladimir facility were fully suspended after the latest strike while services including search maps and payments experienced widespread disruptions a company statement distributed on Telegram said.
Zelensky told attendees at the Warsaw Security Forum via video link that the strikes on Yandex facilities had produced a noticeable change online. “When we started responding to Russia’s operation against our data centers and when our strikes reached Yandex data centers it suddenly became a little easier to breathe on many social media platforms” he said. “A lot of people a lot of people noticed it and there was less hate less division and fewer provocations because there were fewer bots” Zelensky added according to transcripts carried by Euronews and LIGA.net.
Cloudflare Radar data showed automated traffic from Yandex networks falling 94 percent on October 11 compared with late September averages and reaching as low as 0.4 percent of recent peak levels the cybersecurity firm reported. NetBlocks monitoring group separately recorded Yandex cloud connectivity dropping to 30 percent of normal and main network activity to 63 percent. The figures prompted online speculation particularly on X and Reddit that Russian troll operations targeting topics such as the upcoming US midterm elections and European far-right parties had been disrupted.
Disinformation researchers have pushed back against any connection between the observed traffic drop and social media bot farms. A Euromaidan Press review of the Cloudflare data concluded that the automated requests primarily reflect Yandex search engine crawlers rather than accounts posting on platforms such as X or Facebook. The Russian opposition group Antibot4navalny stated on Bluesky that the chart has nothing to do with social media adding that overall Russian bot traffic last week followed normal patterns according to their tracking.
BBC Verify spoke with technology experts who said there is no evidence the strikes significantly reduced Kremlin-linked influence operations. Zelensky’s office clarified to the BBC that the president was referring to the general atmosphere on social media and reports of fewer hateful comments rather than verified bot metrics. Cybersecurity firm Cybernews senior researcher Aras Nazarova told Metro that establishing a link would require account-level data and confirmed infrastructure ties which have not materialised.
Machines Society analysis noted that Russian disinformation networks typically rely on residential proxies compromised devices VPN services and Western cloud providers rather than direct Yandex hosting. The outlet described the narrative tying the strikes to silenced bots as based on a misinterpretation of crawler traffic data. Similar assessments from Newsweek interviewees including former US Homeland Security analyst Jason Vest indicated that while short-term disruptions to some automated systems were possible broader Russian cyber and influence capabilities remained intact and could shift elsewhere.
Yandex has begun restoring services at affected sites with some traffic metrics recovering to 17 percent of prior levels by October 13 Cloudflare figures indicated. Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius suggested at the same Warsaw forum that further strikes on Russian data infrastructure could benefit upcoming elections in his country and Poland according to Dawn newspaper reporting. Additional data on actual bot account activity is expected in coming weeks as researchers continue monitoring according to Radio Free Europe.
