Ukraine Warupdated 1h ago2 min read
Zelenskyy Claims Yandex Strikes Silenced Russian Bots, Experts Call It Misinformation
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Zelenskyy claimed data-center strikes reduced pro-Kremlin bot activity. Experts say no solid evidence linking strikes to bot activity reduction.
Zelenskyy, bots, and Yandex
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the Warsaw Security Forum that strikes on Yandex data centres made it "suddenly became a little easier to breathe on many social media platforms" because "there were fewer bots." Lukasz Olejnik, a visiting senior research fellow at the Department of War Studies at Kings College London, posted on X that the "bots went silent" story is "misinformation" and warned that believing it is "plainly dangerous."
Samuel Woolley, who studies disinformation at the University of Pittsburgh, told CBC News that it was an "overstatement" to suggest propaganda bot traffic declined after Ukrainian attacks on Russian data centres. Yandex’s outages after the airstrikes left users in dozens of Russian cities as well as those in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia unable to order taxis or access banking services, according to Russian independent news outlet Astra.
What the data actually shows
BBC Verify reported that experts told it there was "no evidence" the attacks significantly reduced Russian influence operations, even as viral posts claimed a drop in Kremlin-linked bot networks. BBC Verify said Zelensky’s office told it the president was "talking about the atmosphere on social media" rather than a fall in bot activity.
Amil Khan, the chief executive of Valent, told The Guardian that his platforms were "still monitoring Russian social networks across the world" and found "no discernible change" in posting patterns. Michał 'Rysiek' Woźniak, an internet infrastructure expert, told The Guardian that Cloudflare data showing a drop in "bot" traffic did not mean "automated social media troll accounts" but instead meant "software that makes automated web requests on a large scale."
Disruption, stakes, and uncertainty
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s attacks on Yandex data centres lowered the number of Internet bots promoting pro-Kremlin hate, while tech experts cautioned the suggested effects were misread and based largely on anecdotal evidence. RFE/RL reported that the latest attack hit a Yandex facility in Vladimir on October 11, forcing a complete suspension of operations, and that two other drone strikes hit Sasovo on October 8 and the Kaluga region on October 9.
Netblocks director of research Isik Mater told BBC Verify that disruptions related to Ukrainian strikes "affect all users" globally and that an entire area remaining "out of service" indicated a significant infrastructure-level incident. The Guardian reported that Yandex datacentres had no practical connection to social media bot farms, while the same reporting said the damage could take months to fully repair and that major banks, retailers, sports apps and Yandex’s services were down.