A wave of Ukrainian drone strikes has targeted logistics centers belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer and its equivalent of Amazon, according to reports by Apnews. The aerial attacks have set massive facilities ablaze, destroyed billions of dollars in inventory, and left at least nine people dead.
Ukrainian Drones Target Wildberries Warehouses Across Russia and Crimea
According to The Guardian, Ukrainian drones hit at least nine Wildberries warehouses on four of seven days, striking logistics centers from southern Russia to the outskirts of St. Petersburg. The targeted sites include distribution hubs in Elektrostal in the Moscow region, Kotovsk in the Tambov region, Shushary and Utkina Zavod in the Leningrad region, and a logistics hub in Simferopol in Russian-occupied Crimea, as reported by CNN.
The strikes are part of an expanded Ukrainian aerial campaign aimed at undermining Russia’s war effort, hurting its economy, and making ordinary citizens feel the consequences of the Kremlin’s invasion. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that Kyiv is bringing the war back home to Russia, as noted by Reuters.
Devastation for Russian Small Businesses and Sellers
The destruction of Wildberries distribution centers has severely impacted hundreds of small-business owners who rely on the e-commerce giant to sell goods across Russia. Data Insight, a Moscow-based research company, estimated that losses at Wildberries reached roughly 170 billion roubles ($2.2 billion or £1.64bn) in destroyed merchandise alone. Business daily Kommersant and Forbes estimated that the combined drone attacks affected about 9% to 10% of the company’s total logistics capacity, with merchants’ lost goods running to at least 150 billion roubles ($1.9 billion).
Russian entrepreneurs have taken to social media and news outlets to recount their losses. Viktoria Terekhova, a fashion designer who shipped virtually her entire summer collection of children’s clothes to the Elektrostal warehouse, lost 12,000 items amounting to about 45% of her company’s total inventory, alongside another 4,000 items in southern Russia. Oleg Kondratyev, co-founder of the clothing brand Airbase, reported losing about 5 million roubles of stock, placing him in a dire financial position where he cannot pay loans or upcoming taxes.
Casualties and Local Infrastructure Impacts
The strikes have also proven deadly. Regional officials reported that seven people were killed in Kotovsk, one person was killed in Elektrostal, and at least one person died in the latest strikes in southern Russia, according to the governor of the Krasnodar region.
Extinguishing the massive fires took days at several locations. Wildberries’ online statements indicated that it took three days to put out the fire at Elektrostal, while sites in Kotovsk and the Stavropol region were extinguished or resumed operations later in the week. Facilities in Shushary and Utkina Zavod were temporarily suspended, and the Simferopol center in Crimea was evacuated.
Response from Wildberries, Banks, and the Kremlin
Wildberries was founded in 2004 by Tatyana Kim and currently accounts for 52% of all online orders in Russia, involving between 500,000 and 800,000 sellers. Following the destruction, Kim announced that the company had begun compensating some sellers and was discussing potential tax relief and other measures with Russian authorities. Additionally, Wildberries’ banking and finance arms applied automatic payment deferrals for three months on all loans owed by affected companies.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the economic damage inflicted by the strikes, stating that the situation is difficult given the losses suffered by both the company and small- and medium-sized businesses. Meanwhile, merchants receiving compensation payouts have noted that the funds cover only a fraction of their total losses, leaving many questioning their future reliance on major e-commerce infrastructure.
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