Ukrainian forces conducted multiple airstrikes on datacentres operated by Yandex, a major Russian search engine, over the weekend. Reports indicated that at least two facilities sustained substantial damage. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the strikes had diminished Russia’s disinformation efforts, noting a reduction in hateful content and divisive messaging on social platforms.
However, researchers and disinformation experts have challenged this assessment. According to Amil Khan, chief executive of tech startup Valent, which monitors disinformation networks globally, no discernible change has been observed in posting patterns from Russian social networks. Khan’s team tracks approximately 40 disinformation networks worldwide and found no decrease in post volume following the strikes. Internet infrastructure expert Michał Woźniak clarified that data showing reduced bot activity from Yandex reflects a decline in web crawlers used for search indexing, not social media disinformation accounts.
Cloudflare internet traffic monitoring data did show marked declines in bot activity associated with Yandex on the dates corresponding to two of the strikes. Additionally, independent Russian news outlets reported that numerous services experienced outages, including banking platforms, retail services, and Yandex’s consumer applications. These disruptions suggest the damage was extensive, though not directly connected to disinformation operations.
Experts noted that sophisticated disinformation networks operated by state actors use distributed infrastructure, including residential connections and phone farms, making them resilient to targeted strikes. Ned Mendez, head of research at Alliance4Europe, stated that such operations cannot be disrupted through physical attacks on datacentres. Alternative approaches discussed by experts include targeting recruitment pipelines for private contractors, increasing pressure on social media platforms to enforce moderation policies, and disrupting the supply chains supporting Kremlin-linked influence operations.
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