“A drone attack targeted VK’s data center in the Leningrad region. VK services are available to users as usual,” VK said in a statement on its website, referring to its facility at Novosergievka in the Vsevolozhsk district near St Petersburg. The company did not detail the severity of the damage, but internet monitoring firm NetBlocks noted a 44 percent drop in VK network activity over the weekend. Datacenter Dynamics reported that Sberbank and Yandex facilities have also been struck, and that numerous data centers across Ukraine have been attacked in recent weeks.
Drone strikes VK data center near St Petersburg
A drone attack targeted a data center operated by Russian technology firm VK in the Leningrad region near St Petersburg, the company said, while internet monitor NetBlocks recorded a 44 percent drop in VK network activity over the weekend.
Why it matters: VK runs one of Russia's largest social media, email and cloud platforms, and the strike extends the pattern of data centers being hit on both sides of the war in Ukraine to a facility serving civilian cloud customers.
Data as of Monday, October 19, 2026, 06:44 ET: Datacenter Dynamics report of October 19, 2026, read in full, quoting VK's own statement and NetBlocks; VK did not detail the damage and no second source is in the feed queue, hence grade C. Developing item.
Sources
- VK data center near St. Petersburg, Russia, struck by drone · Datacenter Dynamics · 2026-10-19