RYAZAN OBLAST, RUSSIA — An overnight drone strike triggered massive fires at a key industrial and technology complex in Sasovo, Ryazan region, targeting both the Sasta machine-tool manufacturing plant and an adjacent major Yandex data center facility.
The attack, which marks one of the first direct strikes against Russia’s core tech infrastructure, ignited heavy blazes across the complex. Local eyewitness footage geolocated to the site showed flames rising from the industrial territory that houses both the Sasta factory—a key producer of CNC metalworking machinery for the Russian defense sector—and the 12-megawatt "Yandex DC Sasovo" server farm.
Russian tech giant Yandex confirmed that the facility suffered power supply failures and structural damage, forcing an operational shutdown at the site. While emergency crews worked to extinguish the fires, Yandex Cloud advised users to shift workloads out of the affected availability zone. The company stated that no injuries were reported and that its primary consumer services remain functional through redundant data infrastructure.
Regional governor Pavel Malkov stated that air defense units intercepted incoming drones, but debris caused roof fires on local commercial property. The Sasta plant, which is subject to international sanctions due to its role in supplying industrial equipment to Russian military and transport sectors, is suspected to have been the primary objective of the long-range strike.
Authorities continue to assess the full extent of the structural and hardware damage at both facilities as emergency services contain the remaining flames.
The targeted strike highlights a growing strategy aimed at disrupting key dual-use supply chains and military-adjacent infrastructure deep inside Russian territory. Military analysts note that strikes hitting dual-purpose sites—where defense production shares physical space with civilian digital infrastructure—pose severe challenges for local emergency response and risk broader economic disruption. Following the incident, market reactions saw Yandex shares tumble on European exchanges as investors weighed potential vulnerability across the nation’s core tech network.
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