(ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA) – A drone strike has caused extensive damage to a VKontakte data centre in St Petersburg, blasting a massive hole in the side of the building and causing connectivity for Russia’s largest social media platform to plummet.
Photos shared online show the damage to the data centre, which now resembles a mosaic. Satellite imagery from St Petersburg is not yet available.
The images reveal a perfectly rectangular shaped hole in the side of the building. The drone blasted through the outer shell and then through the interior walls and panels, knocking one of the rectangular panels through completely.
The type of drone used remains unclear, but it must have been a powerful one to cause this amount of damage. Analysts have speculated it may have been a jet-powered drone, which has more penetration than regular drones, or possibly two drones working in tandem, one to blast away the outer shell and another to penetrate the interior.
Another image from a different side shows a hole blown into the structure by another drone. The purpose of this structure is unclear, whether it is the same building or a different one on the site, or if it hosts services. Nothing is visible inside the area hit, and the room appears empty.
A third image shows the side of the building with damage that appears to have been caused by an interior explosion. Debris litters the outside, and the remaining panels are blown outwards. The drone penetrated somewhere and exploded within, with the blast popping these panels out.
Minor damage was also recorded, with windows broken by the blast.
A graphic shared online shows where the main damage in the strike was caused. On the side of a blue structure, likely the main server building, connectivity for VK plummeted after the strike, suggesting that servers were destroyed.
There is speculation that the site may be targeted again to finish it off.
The second strike is believed to have hit roughly the same area. It is the only building visible on Google Maps with the sort of bits jutting out to the front, though Google Maps is a few years out of date and another structure could have been built on the site.
VK’s connectivity dropped to just under 60 percent following the strike. VK is Russia’s largest social media website.
Updates are still awaited on other buildings hit in the St Petersburg strike, including a bridge and an oil terminal.
Footage of the damage was released by the Suchomimus YouTube channel. The strike occurred in St Petersburg, Russia.
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