Russia's internet giant Yandex halts operations at major data center after drone attack

Russian internet giant Yandex suspended operations at one of its key data centers on Thursday after a drone strike as Ukraine continues to target the country's infrastructure. The attack caused a fire at the company's data center in Sasovo, Ryazan, in western Russia, and affected part of its infrastructure, Yandex said in a statement to CNBC. The data center has stopped operating entirely, and some Yandex services may be unavailable to users, it added. "There are no casualties, and emergency services are on site dealing with the aftermath," Yandex said. Moscow-headquartered Yandex, known as the Google of Russia, provides the country's most widely used search engine. It also developed the region's leading generative AI model, YandexGPT.