Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centers coincide with fall in Russian bot activity

techOct 12, 2026281,007

Ukrainian drone strikes on three Yandex data centers in Sasovo, the Kaluga region and the Vladimir region damaged the company’s infrastructure and forced suspension of operations at the Vladimir facility, Yandex said. After the strikes, automated HTTP request traffic tied to Russian bot activity reportedly plunged from 88.2% to 0.3% following October 8, and observers in Europe and the United States flagged a dramatic decline in hostile automated social media activity. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the Warsaw Security Forum that social media felt "easier to breathe" with "less hate, less division and fewer provocations" after the Yandex sites went offline. The sequence of strikes and the traffic drop has prompted investigators and analysts to ask how much Russian online influence operations relied on that infrastructure and whether the outages affected political messaging abroad. Yandex confirmed damage at its Vladimir data centre and said operations there were completely suspended, while the broader disruption has left questions about attribution and long-term effects on bot networks.

Timothy Snyder

@timothysnyder.bsky.social

When Ukraine destroys Russian data centers, hoards of aggressive right-wing bots disappear & the internet becomes friendlier. So much of politics is driven by the internet & so much of the internet is driven by Russians who want to hurt us. Shouldn’t we do something about that, given that we know it

3191h ago

Blue Virginia4

We should have done something about this years ago, when Democrats held power. Why didn't Democrats do anything (e.g., preventing Musk from buying up Twitter) when they had a chance??? Baffling and infuriating.

David Meyer3

I’d be wary of that claim - there isn’t any data to back it up

The Specifics Hardly Matter1

Sounds like a question for 2016.

Quoting this

honor sachs2

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: There’s a difference between being divided and BEING divided.

Princess Vimentin PhD | Cancer Biologist

@princess-vimentin.bsky.social

This explains why engagement has been slightly lower lately. Apparently Zelensky helped tank the Republican midterm messaging by taking out Russian bot farms. The Republicans will need to have a real message to convince voters now. It’s delicious. www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...

2723h ago

Marie300138

Zelensky is a true leader. 🇺🇦 Slava Ukraini!

SAM6

This is for Ukraine 🇺🇦 since you’ve paused the warfare on diesel, can you please take out another Russian data center? Murdering russian bots one data center at a time, or multiple a day! Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦!!! @pravda.ua @theukrainianreview.bsky.social @uptoukraine.bsky.social

AdoboTom6

GOP has no messaging at all. They just keep attacking individuals who are way smarter than they are and who are willing to fight for our country and our rights.

Jim1

Traffic on X will now drop by 40%.

Samuraigrandma1

There needs to be a Go Fund Me or something that Americans can directly donate to Zelensky/Ukraine

NetBlocks

@netblocks.org

📉 ICYMI: No signs of recovery as Yandex suffers a sustained connectivity loss consistent with extensive infrastructure damage after Ukrainian drone strikes on key data centers in Sasovo and Vladimir. The Russian tech giant has issued a bleak outlook to users at home and abroad.

572h ago

Quoting this

Sven-Erik Volberg29

Bot fiasco aside, the data center strikes have considerable down side for russian businesses. There is no easy fix (silver lining of world wide AI craze) and russias choice to do strict sovereignty over resilience.

Sanho Tree22

“I felt a great disturbance in the internet, as if millions of fascist and racist bots suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.”

Kiba_Ru!3

I wonder if this is a real Problem for republican voter outreach? Especially those hard to reach voters that struggle to come out when trump isn’t on the ballot

🦋FightForDemocracy!🦋

@budahsbaker.bsky.social

Someone called the bombing of the Russian bot farms “Operation Quiet Piggy”😂

503h ago

✨John Carpenter’s BOObies✨

@ourflagmeansbeth.bsky.social

If you’re looking for sources on the bot farm stuff it’s coming from Cloudflare. THW breaks it down: www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...

532h ago

✨John Carpenter’s BOObies✨27

Furthermore, I think we’ve all just been reminded of why the richest people in the world and their foot soldiers (politicians!) keep pushing for more data centers: it allows them to manipulate political outcomes.

John Lieske2

"Cloudflare reports that bot traffic from the Yandex network has dropped to just 0.4% of the maximum number of HTTP requests recorded in the past two weeks." You love to see it.

Digital Warrior - Combat Disinfo

@digitalwarrior.bsky.social

5/ On October 12, Pres Zelenskyy told the Warsaw Security Forum that after strikes reached Yandex data centers, it became easier to breathe on social media. Ppl noticed less hatred, less division & fewer provocations, because there were fewer bots. His words, not mine interfax.com.ua/news/general...

312h ago

Ayo

@darrylayo.bsky.social

Ukraine destroyed a Russian data center and a massive amount of social media accounts vanished because those were bots all along

402h ago

General Strike

@ivanasstaircam.bsky.social

We have to prevent more Russian bot farms, er I mean data centers from being built in America.

333h ago

LaindonFeminist

@viviane49.bsky.social

I hear it could take a couple of years before the Russian bot farms are up and running again. Seemingly a shortage of chips. That means two years of not being called a ‘retard’ or other more specific insults. I can live with that!!’

242h ago

Grumpy1

They’ll have most of it redirected from other servers in a matter of days

pissed-off-g.bsky.social

@pissed-off-g.bsky.social

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Ukraine's strikes on three Russian Yandex data centers as Trump faces backlash over his diesel deal with Russia and shifting claims about an energy ceasefire. Meiselas breaks down Zelensky's response, Russia's attacks on Ukraine's ... youtu.be/mMok2XA6Dmk?...

143h ago

US News Now - World’s leading Liberal Voice

@democracyblue.bsky.social

Ukraine has hit, what-3 Yandex data centers in Russia within the last 48 hours? I'm sure it's a total coincidence, but look at the "activity"

132h ago

strigix

@sovereignbeast.bsky.social

so all the liberals have got to feel really awkward about how, in the wake of those russian bot farms getting blown up, a bunch of their oomfies disappeared overnight while all the leftists they accuse of being russian bots just kept posting, right?

101h ago

CYNC Verity Media

@cvmedia.bsky.social

Zelenskyy says Russian bot activity declined after Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centers. The reported drop suggests Russia's online influence operations may depend on vulnerable infrastructure, though a direct link remains unverified. #Ukraine #Russia united24media.com/war-in-ukrai...

102h ago

Spooky Robb from 8/16/32bit

@81632bitretro.com

The drop in bots over on X may be real, and not an AI generated graph afterall: www.tomshardware.com/tech-industr...

103h ago

Quoting this

Disappointed Optimist9

We are getting a tiny peek at future where billionaires get nervous when data centres are targeted more so than any other infrastructure

The Moscow Times

@themoscowtimes.com

A wave of attacks against the Russian internet giant Yandex has sent shockwaves across the country in recent days and caused major disruptions to daily life. Here is everything we know:

112h ago

3 sources

euronews.comUkrainian strikes on data centres and Russian bot activity in freefall tomshardware.comRussia's Yandex bot traffic nearly eliminated overnight after Ukraine drone strikes cripple multiple of 'Russia's Google' data centers — Ukraine intensifies bombing of Yandex data centers in response to Moscow’s strikes on Kyiv data centers united24media.comUkraine Struck Yandex Data Centers, Russian Bots Went Silent—Now Questions Are Mounting

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Ukrainian strikes on Yandex data centers coincide with fall in Russian bot activity

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