Kyiv rejects Trump’s call to replace Zelenskyy as Yandex centers burn
Wartime rules now decide who can legally lead Ukraine.
Overview
Donald Trump’s call for Ukraine to replace President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has opened a dispute over who can choose Ukraine’s leader. Kyiv rejected the demand, saying martial law blocks normal elections. It says Zelenskyy remains president until voters can choose a successor. The dispute is over whether wartime rules should keep the current government in place, or whether Ukraine should face pressure to choose a leader more willing to make peace. The war is also hitting digital services. After Russia reportedly struck Ukrainian data centers, Ukraine said it retaliated. Drone attacks on October 8, 9 and 11 damaged Yandex centers in Ryazan, Kaluga and Vladimir. No deaths were reported, but outages affected more than 80 services, including cloud computing, payments, navigation and ride-hailing. Ukraine says the centers support Russia’s strategic abilities. Their commercial services mean users and businesses also face disruption.
Timeline
Three strikes disrupted more than 80 Yandex-linked services as Kyiv framed them as retaliation
The three attacks disrupted Yandex platforms and related services including search, navigation, payments, ride-hailing, and food delivery. Kyiv presented the strikes as retaliation for Russian attacks on Ukrainian , while reporting did not independently verify every operational or military claim about the targets. The sequence showed how can become wartime pressure points even when their direct military role remains alleged rather than established.
A third attack shut down Yandex’s Vladimir-region data center
A reported overnight drone attack damaged Yandex’s data center in Russia’s Vladimir region and forced a . Yandex said its cloud platform was operating in and advised customers to use . The company reported service disruptions but no casualties at the facility.
A second strike partly disabled Yandex infrastructure in Russia’s Kaluga region
The following day, a reported drone attack hit another Yandex facility in the Kaluga region. Yandex said several were disabled, creating a broader risk of disruption across its cloud and consumer services. Regional officials separately reported injuries and other local effects, but the company did not establish that the facilities had a .
A drone strike set fire to Yandex’s Sasovo data center and halted its operations
A reported Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at ’s data center in , in Russia’s Ryazan region. said the facility stopped operating completely, some services could become unavailable, and restoration timing could not yet be determined. The company said there were no casualties and that emergency services were responding.
Russian strikes damaged Ukrainian data infrastructure before Kyiv reported retaliatory attacks
Russian attacks reportedly hit and related in Ukraine, causing outages that Kyiv described as damage to civilian-adjacent services. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later said Ukraine was responding in a mirror-like way to those attacks. The military role of the affected facilities remained disputed, while their commercial and public-facing functions were documented.
Kyiv rejected Trump’s legitimacy challenge because martial law prevents normal elections
Ukrainian officials said presidential elections could not be held under the country’s wartime legal framework and that Zelenskyy remained in office until a successor could be elected. Ukraine’s position was that , rather than a foreign political demand, determined presidential authority. The disagreement produced a diplomatic legitimacy dispute but did not change Ukraine’s leadership.
Donald Trump called for Ukraine to replace President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Trump publicly argued that Ukraine needed a new president, turning the question of political leadership into a dispute with Kyiv. Ukrainian officials rejected the demand and said Ukraine’s presidency could not be changed by an outside government. The dispute raised because Ukraine’s normal election timetable has been disrupted by war and .