Russian bloggers warn Russia’s hyper-centralized digital economy is vulnerable.
Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/10/russia-was-not-ready-for-the-data-center-war-it-started-with-ukraine/
Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.
Russians may be waiting up to six months until Yandex can replace damaged data center equipment
Which Russians? All Yandex services are still working as far as I’m aware.
On one hand, Slava Ukraini.
But on the other, online piracy is gonna be a bit more difficult for a while.
But on the other, online piracy is gonna be a bit more difficult for a while.
doubt
As the Dutch say…
Wie een kuil graaft voor een ander valt er zelf in.
Also common in Czech: “Kdo jinému jámu kopá, sám do ní padá”
Translated into dummy English “Digging a hole for someone else doesn’t mean you can’t fall in too”
FTFY “Who ever digs a hole for someone else, will themselves, fall into it”
Also a common saying in German: “Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein.”
Danish: “den der graver en grav for andre, falder selv i den”
I’m curious to see how much damage was done to those data centers. Did the whole thing burn down, are only some crucial elements shutdown and most importantly, will the compute units be recyclable? Usually they have pretty effective fire supression systems. But they’re probably not designed to withstand bombings.
The pictures looked pretty ugly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTJGhuWWnGo (right at the start) for Sasova. https://youtu.be/L6FMWTKk8W0?t=1287 for satellite image - half of it is completely gone, and the rest is probably not useable anymore after the fire.
Edit: here a quick screenshot:
Not too shabby. I guess they’ll have to test the rest, it’s high enough value to test each individual graphics card etc
Yeah, but i can clearly remember a LAN party back in the 2000s where my girlfriend at the time had the bright idea of burning anti-mosquito-candles indoor because we were under siege - it caused a monitor and 2 power brick failures within 24 hours. And this stuff is a lot more sensitive, and the fire was causing a lot more crap in the air.
From now on, in any war, datacenters will be taken out first
