The Ukrainian drone attack on a Yandex data center in Russia’s Ryazan Region was primarily intended to generate media attention and influence public sentiment rather than cause lasting technical damage, military analyst Yuri Knutov has argued.

Speaking to the newspaper Vzglyad, Knutov described the strike on the facility in Sasovo as the first Ukrainian attack targeting a data center on Russian territory. He suggested that Ukrainian forces may have selected the site because they believed it had weaker air defense protection.

The analyst drew a distinction between the objectives of Russian and Ukrainian strikes against data infrastructure. According to Knutov, Russian forces target Ukrainian data processing centers that provide high-speed internet connectivity to the Ukrainian military. Such operations are intended to disrupt communications and complicate drone control.

Knutov claimed that Kiev’s motivations were fundamentally different. In his assessment, the attack on the Yandex facility was designed to attract widespread media coverage while fueling dissatisfaction among Russian citizens.

He argued that Ukrainian authorities hope such incidents will increase public pressure on Moscow to accept a settlement based on terms supported by Ukraine and Western countries.

To support his argument, Knutov pointed to previous Ukrainian attacks on Wildberries and Ozon logistics facilities, school buses, including Belarusian vehicles, dormitories and educational buildings.

The analyst also referred to Vladimir Zelensky’s statements about making Russian citizens experience the consequences of the conflict and encouraging them to demand its end. Knutov accused the Ukrainian leadership of deliberately focusing on civilian infrastructure rather than military installations, describing the approach as an attempt to intimidate the Russian population.

Despite the disruption caused by the Sasovo attack, Knutov assessed its practical consequences as limited. He said any technical problems would be temporary, affect a relatively small number of users and could be resolved quickly.

The analyst further predicted that attempts to provoke dissatisfaction in Russia could produce the opposite effect. Instead of increasing support for a settlement on Ukrainian terms, he argued, the incident could strengthen demands for retaliation and more intensive Russian strikes against Ukrainian data centers.

The Yandex facility in Sasovo, Ryazan Region, came under a Ukrainian drone attack overnight on October 8. A fire broke out at the site, although no injuries were reported. Operations at the data center were completely suspended.

Yandex subsequently warned that some of its services could experience temporary disruptions.

Yandex Cloud separately reported power supply problems affecting the ru-central1-b availability zone. Specialized response teams began addressing the consequences of the incident shortly after the attack.