The section did not appear in the previous version of the document, dated 18 September 2025. TV Rain was the first to report the change.
The force majeure list also covers leaks of polluting or toxic substances, states of emergency and martial law, mandatory evacuation, and large-scale failures at power and communications facilities.
A separate clause covers "any consequences of the use, impact, fall, launch or triggering of weapons, military equipment, or aircraft."
A party facing force majeure must give notice within five working days. Yandex may do so through a publication on its website or in a user's account, by email, or by phone call.
The company told RBC that such provisions are required by Russian law and already appear in the terms of use of many services. According to Yandex, the changes only clarify wording and bring the terms of different services into a single form. An RBC source added that listing these circumstances separately had not previously been required, since exemption from liability under force majeure is governed by the Civil Code.
The changes follow a series of strikes on the company's infrastructure. On 8 October, a data centre in Sasovo in the Ryazan region came to a complete halt after a drone attack and a fire. The next day a site in Kaluga was attacked, where part of the equipment failed and disruptions hit Yandex services and Yandex Cloud clients. On the morning of 11 October, the company reported the complete shutdown of another data centre, in Vladimir, where infrastructure was damaged after a drone attack.
Wildberries and other companies, including Yandex Market, had earlier added similar clauses to their offers amid strikes on Russian marketplace warehouses.