Ukrainian drones hit Yandex data centre in Ryazan and Bashkortostan refinery

Overnight strike halts Yandex data centre in Sasovo

Ukrainian drone strikes struck an industrial complex in the town of Sasovo in Russia's Ryazan Oblast overnight into 8 October 2026. The targeted site belongs to the Sasta machine tool plant, which also hosts Yandex's main data centre in the region. Local video footage analyzed by Astra and reports from the Exilenova+ channel confirmed that a fire broke out across the industrial grounds following several explosions. Sasta manufactures equipment used extensively in Russia's defense, aerospace, transport, and heavy machinery industries. Yandex Cloud confirmed power supply failures that began around 01:31, leaving technical staff working to restore core systems. Reuters reported that operations at the Ryazan Oblast data centre were completely halted as a result of the drone attack.

The disruption knocked out computing infrastructure, storage, databases, Kubernetes clusters, AI services, and monitoring networks, causing temporary outages for consumer tools like Yandex Disk and Yandex Documents. The company published an advisory addressing the disruption to customers.

We will provide updates on the progress of restoring services.

Strategic footprint of the Sasovo complex

The Yandex data centre in Sasovo has been operational since 2011. In 2022, head of the city administration Yevgeniya Rubtsova stated that Yandex had invested more than 6 billion rubles into the facility over eleven years. That same year, Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov described the installation as a high-tech facility holding tens of thousands of servers that process queries across all Yandex services. The Sasta manufacturing plant itself incorporates machining shops, an assembly hall, a foundry, and research units, operating under international sanctions. The Exilenova+ channel reported that missiles or jet-powered unmanned aircraft were probably used to carry out the strike. At the time of reporting, neither Russian regional authorities nor the Ukrainian military had issued formal confirmation detailing the attack.

Oil refinery struck in Bashkortostan

Ukrainian long-range operations overnight also struck the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat refinery located in Bashkortostan. Open-source imagery reviewed by Astra showed a fire burning in the vicinity of the plant following the attack. The Salavat enterprise processes up to 10 million tons of hydrocarbon feedstock each year, producing over 150 varieties of petroleum and chemical goods including gasoline, diesel, mazut, bitumen, polyethylene, and ammonia. The facility previously halted all crude processing following a raid on 14 July, while another fire broke out after an attack on 13 August. Earlier drone attacks in 2023 had also damaged primary hydrocarbon processing units at the facility.

Escalating strikes and civilian toll in Ukraine

The strikes follow an announcement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy approving a plan for deep long-range operations inside Russia during October. Zelenskyy stated that Kyiv would enforce symmetrical retaliation against Russian infrastructure strikes, following a late September Russian attack against the Datagroup data centre in Kyiv. Concurrently, Russian forces carried out destructive strikes against Ukrainian cities on 7 October. Ukrainian Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyj detailed the casualty figures from the nationwide strikes, stating that attacks on Pryluky, Kremenchuk, Oleksandriia, and Kyiv killed 28 people, including five children in Pryluky. An evening strike on a residential high-rise building in Kyiv's Desnianskyi district killed two residents, injured four others, and required emergency crews to rescue 22 people, including eight children. Vyhivskyj confirmed the casualty toll across the affected regions:

Pryluky, Kremenchuk, Oleksandriia, Kyiv, today's attacks claimed 28 lives.