Ukraine hits Russian Yandex data centre as Zelenskyy offers refinery strike halt if Russia stops energy attacks

New Delhi: Ukraine has stepped up its drone attack against Russian technology infrastructure, damaging a third data centre operated by Russian tech giant Yandex in four days. The latest attack on Sunday hit a facility in Vladimir, east of Moscow, forcing operations to stop and disrupting digital services across several regions, according to the company.

Yandex Cloud said the drone attack damaged the facility’s infrastructure and completely halted its operations. No injuries were reported.

The latest strike followed attacks on Yandex data centres in Russia’s Ryazan region on Thursday and Kaluga region on Friday. The Kaluga facility was partially knocked out of action, while the Ryazan attack also forced a data centre offline, according to previous company updates.

Yandex, often described as Russia’s Google, operates the country’s leading search engine and a range of digital services. It is also involved in Russia’s artificial intelligence sector, making its data infrastructure important to the country’s digital economy.

The attacks reflect Ukraine’s expanding activities against infrastructure deep inside Russia, as both countries continue exchanging long-range drone strikes while fighting on the frontline remains largely deadlocked.

The attack came amid a growing dispute between the United States president, Donald Trump, and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, over strikes on Russian energy facilities. Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Ukraine would stop attacking Russian oil refineries if Moscow halted strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

“Ukraine will be ready to stop striking Russian oil refineries if Russia stops striking our energy infrastructure,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that any halt must be reciprocal and backed by credible guarantees.

Trump, meanwhile, called for Ukraine to get a new president on Saturday, accusing Zelenskyy of failing to secure a peace deal. His remarks followed a diesel agreement with Russian president, Vladimir Putin, announced on Friday, aimed at increasing fuel supplies amid rising prices in the United States.

The agreement has drawn criticism from Ukraine and European officials, who argue that easing restrictions on Russian diesel could provide Moscow with additional revenue to sustain its war effort. The Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, defended Zelenskyy, saying Ukrainians had the right to decide who leads their country.

Russian attack kills civilians in Zaporizhzhia

Meanwhile, a Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia killed 23 people, including four children, with rescue operations completed on Sunday, Zelenskyy said. He also reported Russian strikes on a medical facility in Kharkiv and a residential building in Slovyansk, where people may remain trapped under rubble.

Zelenskyy said Russia had launched around 1,450 aerial bombs, 75 missiles and more than 1,640 attack drones over the past week. Separately, Russian authorities reported that a man was killed and two women wounded in a Ukrainian drone strike in the Bryansk region.