Ukraine Warupdated 59m ago2 min read
Ukraine Strikes VKontakte Datacentre Near St Petersburg, Disrupting Russia’s Connectivity
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Ukrainian drone strike damaged VKontakte data center near Novosergievka, Leningrad region. Strike disrupted Yandex data centers, affecting banking, taxis, and digital services.
Datacentre strikes near St Petersburg
Ukraine struck a VKontakte datacentre near St Petersburg, damaging the facility in Novosergievka in the Leningrad region during a series of overnight drone attacks on 18th October. Internet monitoring group NetBlocks said connectivity linked to VK dropped to 56% of its usual level during the incident, while Russian monitoring service Sboy logged approximately 2,100 complaints between 03:00 and 05:00 local time.
Regional governor Alexander Beglov said a strike on the Petersburg Oil Terminal triggered a fire in an oil storage area, and the facility handles and stores petroleum products with 32 storage tanks with a combined capacity of about 442,000 cubic metres. Pavel Durov said, "They failed to protect it," after the datacentre was hit, and the source added that VK's datacentre stands alongside the Vostochnaya substation, a major 330-kilovolt electricity facility that was also reportedly targeted.
Disruptions spread through daily life
Irina said, "I ended up in a situation where I had absolutely no money," as Russians were locked out of bank accounts and apartments after Ukraine hit data centres of Yandex.
Irina had not been able to access her money for four days when she spoke, and disruptions left some people unable to get into their homes after their digital keys went offline.
Connectivity to the Yandex Cloud platform fell to around 30 per cent of normal levels following the October 8-11 strikes, and Yandex confirmed serious damage to one data center, the shutdown of another and infrastructure disruptions at a third.
Yandex Pay displayed the reassurance, "Your money is safe. Some features are unavailable. Our engineers are working to get everything up and running again."
Retaliation and wider stakes
Zelensky previously signalled that Kyiv would retaliate against Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, and the source quoted him saying, "We always respond in kind." Russia launched a massive attack against Kiev and its region in direct response to a Ukrainian drone raid on Sunday that struck Saint Petersburg, and the Russian Defense Ministry stated that the attack targeted military industry facilities, cruise missile depots and drones, and data centers in the Ukrainian capital.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it launched 269 drones and 16 ballistic missiles, none of which were intercepted, and the preliminary toll was at least one dead and eight wounded in Kiev. The governor of the Leningrad region, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said air defenses managed to shoot down up to 144 aircraft, while at least one person died and five others were injured in the city during the bombardment against Saint Petersburg.