Ukraine strikes Russian tech giant Yandex’s data centers for a second straight day as new peace talks involving Kyiv, the U.S., and Europe get underway in Miami

Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s Kaluga region overnight into October 9, Governor Vladislav Shapsha said. He said Ukrainian forces struck infrastructure in Kaluga but gave no further details. Nine people were injured, five of whom were hospitalized.

Yandex later said its data center in Kaluga had come under drone attack. No employees were injured, but “several data center modules have been completely disabled.” The company warned that some Yandex services could experience disruptions.

This was the second attack on the Russian tech giant’s data centers in two days. Overnight into October 8, drones struck a data center in Sasovo, in the Ryazan region. A fire broke out, and the data center was shut down completely. Soon after the attack, users began reporting disruptions to Yandex services, media websites, and other services, including Avito, Ivi, Megafon, Russian Railways, and T-Bank.

Responding to the attacks, Yandex said its data centers were the company’s “iron heart” and that keeping them operational was “critical to services that have become part of people’s everyday lives.”

“We understand that for our users, clients, and partners, every outage disrupts plans and prevents them from doing things they normally do in their daily lives or at work. Yandex teams are doing everything they can, day and night, to keep services running and help those affected by the incident. This is our most important task right now, but unfortunately, it isn’t easy,” Yandex said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky briefly addressed the attack on Yandex on the evening of October 8: “You all know they [Russian forces] have struck our data centers and are still striking them. We responded. I can’t share all the details.”

Russia has regularly struck data centers in Ukraine in recent weeks. Since late September, Russian forces have damaged or destroyed data centers belonging to at least eight companies. Russia’s Defense Ministry has called these strikes a “forced digital detox.”

The peace process

Ukrainian representatives will meet with U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in the United States on October 9 and 10. The Ukrainian delegation has traveled to Miami, where the talks will take place. Its members include presidential chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov, Davyd Arakhamia, who leads the Servant of the People parliamentary faction, and Foreign Intelligence Service head Rustem Umerov. Reuters reported that Washington had invited national security advisers from the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, as well as representatives of NATO and the EU.

According to Axios, Kushner and Witkoff plan to present the Ukrainian delegation with “new ideas and proposals” for ending the Russia–Ukraine war. No details were given. The two presented the proposals to President Donald Trump at a meeting on October 8.

An Axios source said Witkoff and Kushner could travel to Moscow in October for further talks with Vladimir Putin.

Shortly before the Miami talks, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there were currently no prospects for a peaceful settlement of the Russia–Ukraine conflict. He said the war had reached a “strategic stalemate”: Russia continues to insist on full control of the Donbas, a condition Ukraine finds completely unacceptable.

Rubio said the situation could be resolved in only two ways: through a negotiated settlement or escalation by one or both sides.

In response, Zelensky said breaking the stalemate would require increasing economic pressure on Russia, allowing Ukraine to use Starlink for strikes on Russian territory, and refusing to reach agreements with Moscow on any future projects:

In mid-September, Trump said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to stop striking each other’s energy infrastructure. In practice, however, that did not happen. Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to stop attacking Russian oil refineries if Russia agreed to stop striking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

The Kremlin called an energy ceasefire “a very good idea.” Sources told The Kyiv Independent that Russia had demanded U.S. sanctions relief during talks on a possible energy ceasefire. It is unclear which sanctions were involved.

The war in photographs: the aftermath of a Russian strike on Zaporizhzhia

On the morning of October 9, Russian forces struck Zaporizhzhia with aerial bombs. Mykhailo Semikin, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said six aerial bombs had been dropped on the city. Homes and cars were damaged. According to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service, a 50-year-old man was killed and 14 people were injured.