Russians Complain as Ukraine Strikes Leave Dating Apps Broken and Takeaway Delays Worsen

Data centre strikes disrupt services

Yandex said damage to its infrastructure caused its data centre in Russia’s Vladimir region to shut down completely on Sunday. On Wednesday, Ukrainian drones struck a data centre owned by Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank.

The outages have affected email, taxi apps, dating sites and electronic building fobs in Moscow. Some residents reportedly could not enter their homes because barrier gates operated by a company using Yandex infrastructure were affected.

The Sberbank facility was in the Saratov region. The bank said its systems were operating normally, despite the strike, which was described as Ukraine’s largest attempt to disrupt Russian banking.

Kyiv says strikes are reciprocal

Ukraine says it is responding to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data sites. President Volodymyr Zelensky described the approach as mirroring Russia’s strikes and said he could not share all the details.

Zelensky also said social media platforms had become easier to use after the attacks began. He claimed Ukrainian strikes reduced Russian bot activity, but that claim could not be verified. BBC Verify reported that claims about effects on Russian disinformation may have resulted from a misreading of data from technology firm Cloudflare.

Kremlin acknowledges technology problems

Peskov did not say whether the government was considering compensation for users. Sberbank reportedly serves 100 million customers in Russia and is largely owned by the Kremlin.

Wider pressure on Russian daily life

After Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure left hundreds of thousands without heat and electricity last winter, Kyiv has pursued strikes intended to affect everyday life in Russia. Ukraine also targeted Wildberries, a major online retailer described as Russia’s answer to Amazon, damaging its warehouses. The strategy aims to increase pressure on Vladimir Putin’s regime as economic discontent simmers in Russia.