Russian supercomputers are beyond repair after strikes on Yandex data centers
Read NV on Google
Ukrainian strikes on Russian data centers irreversibly damaged several of the country’s key supercomputers (stock photo) (Photo: Sora Shimazaki / Pexels)
Russia will be forced to completely rebuild its supercomputers from scratch following Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centers, tech expert and founder of the Narodniy Starlink (The People’s Starlink) and SkyLinker projects Volodymyr Stepanets told Radio NV on October 13.
“Supercomputers are fascinating. A supercomputer is essentially an array of specialized computing solutions designed for a specific purpose,” Stepanets explained. “It is a powerhouse for extremely complex calculations requiring immense computing power. From an engineering standpoint, it is essentially a vast array of hardware custom-built into a single system.”
These systems are custom-built, calibrated, and fine-tuned to process highly complex tasks, delivering calculations that are otherwise nearly impossible to achieve, Stepanets said.
“A supercomputer is a specialized computing powerhouse, much like a super-rocket or super-satellite. It is inherently a complex engineering project that takes a massive, lengthy effort to build,” the tech expert said. “As a result, when a system like this is damaged or destroyed, it is extremely difficult and costly to replicate; it is simpler to just build a new one from scratch. This was a highly valuable digital asset for the enemy that has now been taken off the board.”
Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centers
A Ukrainian military operation knocked out a data center in Russia's Ryazan Oblast overnight on October 8, disabling the prominent Chervonenkis and Lyapunov supercomputers. Company management stated they could not verify the condition of the hardware following the strike, which triggered widespread disruptions across Yandex Cloud, Mail, Disk, and Docs services, as well as T-Bank mobile applications.
A strike on the Grabtsevo data center near Kaluga crippled Russia's largest data facility, forcing Yandex Cloud into emergency mode. The facility, boasting a 63-megawatt capacity and 3,800 server racks, sustained heavy damage to its modules. Yandex attempted to reroute its digital workload to alternative providers like VK Cloud, Selectel, and K2Cloud, but the effort failed due to a nationwide shortage of available server space. The resulting outage immediately disrupted logistics and checkout systems for major retail chains Magnit and Fix Price, while disabling the Yandex Eda food delivery and Yandex Taxi networks.
A third strike hit the Vladimir data center overnight on October 11, igniting a fire that destroyed the Galushkin supercomputer and forcing the facility offline. The total shutdown of the 50-megawatt, 2,880-rack facility triggered widespread disruptions across Russia's consumer tech infrastructure. The resulting outage knocked out the Alice voice assistant, the Kinopoisk streaming platform, Yandex Music, the Telemost video conferencing system, and Yandex Smart Home services.
Yandex confirmed a systemic disruption to its cloud service, a failure corroborated by internet traffic monitors Cloudflare and NetBlocks. The outage across three data centers triggered a cascading collapse that knocked out services for Pulkovo Airport, real estate platform CIAN, online pharmacy Apteka.ru, and fast-food chains Vkusno - i tochka and Dodo Pizza. The infrastructure crisis sent Yandex shares plummeting on the Moscow Exchange, with analysts estimating the financial fallout at hundreds of millions of dollars.
Automated bot traffic from Yandex's network plummeted following the strikes on the company's data centers, according to data from Cloudflare Radar.
Bot traffic on the network had dropped to a mere 0.3% to 0.4% at its lowest point, down from an average of 80% to 88% of its peak just a week prior. While traffic has since begun a gradual recovery to around 17%, the figure remains several times lower than pre-strike levels.
The military war may be swinging in our favor, but the information war continues.
Just as an army needs soldiers, so does a free society need its journalists to ensure that people have access to honest, trustworthy voices to understand the world around them.
For the past five years, The New Voice of Ukraine has been working tirelessly to push back against Russian narratives and defend democracy. But we cannot do it alone.
Please consider supporting us on Patreon for just $5 a month – your donation does directly to supporting journalists and ensuring that this front of the infowar says solid and defended.
Thank you.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google News
