Ukraine's Data Center Strikes and Russian Bot Networks
Ukraine's military strikes on Russian data centers disrupted bot networks used by Russian far-right groups, leading to decreased social media engagement in Europe.
January 2019
Russian Parliament passed Sovereign Internet Law
The Russian parliament passed the Sovereign Internet Law. President Vladimir Putin signed the law into effect.
Source ↗October 2026
Ukraine conducted coordinated drone strikes against Russian data centers
Ukraine carried out a coordinated drone strike against several major Russian data centers over the weekend. This action reportedly decimated Russia's Yandex network, which controls over 70% of search traffic in the country.
Source ↗Ukrainian President Zelensky claims reduction in online hate and bots
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested on Monday that there was "less hate, less division and fewer provocations" online. He attributed this perceived change to "fewer bots" following data center strikes.
Source ↗Zelenskyy Claims Strikes Silenced Social Media Bots
President Zelenskyy of Ukraine announced that strikes targeting Russian data centers resulted in the silencing of social media bots. This claim was made in a post published on October 13, 2026.
Source ↗Strikes Allegedly Silenced Yandex Crawler Bots
A comment suggested that the strikes on Russian data centers specifically silenced Yandex crawler bots. This claim was made during the discussion regarding the impact of the strikes.
Source ↗Bot traffic from Yandex network dropped significantly after strikes
Bot traffic from the Yandex network dropped to 0.4% of the maximum number of HTTP requests recorded in the past two weeks. This resulted in the virtual elimination of activity from automated, Russian-hosted accounts on social media.
Source ↗Ukrainian President Zelensky commented on reduced social media activity
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that it had become 'a little easier to breathe' on social media following the strikes on Russian data centers. This comment followed reports of reduced bot activity.
Source ↗dTeam reports no traffic change from known Russian bot clusters
Researchers from dTeam informed BBC Verify that there was no observed "traffic change from known Russian accounts and bot clusters on any platform." This finding pertains to influence operations linked to Moscow.
Source ↗Pro-Kremlin bots Storm-1516 and Matryoshka remained active
Evidence shared with BBC Verify by dTeam showed that bots linked to pro-Kremlin influence operations, specifically Storm-1516 and Matryoshka, were still active on social media.
Source ↗Social media engagement for Reform UK figures declined
Social media engagement for figures from Reform UK appeared to drop following the Ukrainian strikes on Russian data centers. For example, Richard Tice's posts saw reduced repost and comment activity.
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