No evidence Ukraine’s Yandex strikes reduced Russian influence operations
Experts say there is no evidence that Ukraine’s strikes on Yandex data centres significantly reduced Russian influence operations. President Volodymyr Zelensky had suggested the attacks meant fewer bots and less divisive content online, but monitoring cited in the reports does not support that claim.
bbc.comIs Zelensky right to say data centre strikes have taken down Russian bots?
theverge.comRussian bot farms are still trolling, even after Ukraine’s drone strikes on Yandex
Claims of fewer bots
Experts told BBC Verify there is no evidence that Ukrainian attacks on Russian data centres have significantly reduced Kremlin-linked bot networks. The assessment follows widely shared claims that Russian influence operations had declined after the strikes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday there was “less hate, less division and fewer provocations” online because of “fewer bots”. Social media users have also claimed reduced activity around MAGA-affiliated accounts and Germany’s far-right AfD party.
What the strikes affected
Ukraine has struck three of Yandex’s five data centres since 8 October in response to Moscow’s attacks on Ukrainian internet hubs, according to the BBC. After the second strike on Thursday, Yandex said it was struggling to maintain its services.
The BBC reported that claims of disrupted influence operations appeared to stem from a misinterpretation of Cloudflare data showing reduced bot activity on Yandex’s network. Bots also perform automated tasks such as scanning pages for search engines; The Verge reported that the strikes appeared to have affected Yandex’s web crawlers rather than political operations.
Monitoring points to continued activity
The account antibot4navalny, which tracks state-sponsored troll farms, reported that bot traffic remained steady, according to The Verge. On Monday, it identified Kremlin-aligned accounts posting videos falsely claiming that experts were demanding the European Union lift sanctions on Russia.
Danish analyst Valdemar Osted said interactions on MAGA and AfD accounts had increased since the strikes, The Verge reported.
