Ukraine's Drone Strikes on 'Russia's Amazon' Spark Intense Reactions
A map by Newsweek shows the scale of Ukrainian drone attacks on centers run by Wildberries, the online retailer that dominates Russia's domestic e-commerce and is considered the country's version of Amazon. Wildberries delivers everything—whether it's clothing, electronics, groceries or household goods—and its importance has increased after many Western retailers left Russia following President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. At least 12 Wildberries warehouses in Russia and occupied Ukraine have been struck since July 17, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an analysis published on Saturday. Images shared on social media show smoke and damage at the company's warehouses. Newsweek has contacted Wildberries for comment.Kommersant, a Russian newspaper, reported on July 23 that up to 10 percent of the retailer's logistics capacity, or 5.9 million square feet, had been damaged.Following the strikes, Wildberries stopped displaying military-related goods, and it has removed tags online linked to the "special military operation," which is the Kremlin's term for Russia's war in Ukraine, the Moscow Times reported.Ukraine says the warehouses support military logistics, a claim Moscow denies. The drone strikes signal a strategic shift in Ukraine's campaign against Russian commerce, bringing the war Putin started home to ordinary Russians. This screenshot from video shared on social media on July 24 shows the aftermath of Ukrainian drone strikes on a Wildberries site in St. Petersburg, R... | X/@bayraktar_1loveWhich Wildberries Sites Were Hit?As Newsweek's map shows, the reach of the Ukrainian strikes inside Russia encompasses hundreds of miles. On July 18, Ukrainian drones struck a Wildberries logistics center in Kotovsk, a town in the Tambov region, which killed seven workers and injured about 25 others, according to the regional governor. The same night, a strike hit Russia's largest Wildberries warehouse—in Elektrostal, a city in the Moscow region—injuring 24 people, according to reports. The Russian Telegram channel Astra reported that smoke from the Moscow facilities could be seen more than 30 miles away. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes were a response to Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, and that the Wildberries warehouses held components used to produce drones. Russia has used similar tactics, striking sorting centers at Ukrposhta, Ukraine's national postal service, and the courier firm Nova Poshta. Ukrainian drones then struck Wildberries distribution centers in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions in southern Russia on July 22. Tatyana Kim, the company's founder, confirmed the attacks. With a net worth of $8.1 billion according to Forbes, Kim is Russia's richest woman. Social media clips show a huge plume of smoke rising over the warehouse in Krasnodar. Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said 10 people had been wounded in an attack on a "storage facility" without directly referring to Wildberries. He said one woman later died. On July 23, a Wildberries facility in the city of Voronezh suspended operations following reports of further Ukrainian strikes, Reuters reported. The governor of Voronezh said the roof of a warehouse belonging to an online marketplace had been damaged in the attack that also killed a 3-year-old boy. A day later, Kim said three more warehouses had been attacked by Ukraine. They were in St. Petersburg, the surrounding Leningrad region and in Simferopol, the main city in Russian-occupied Crimea. Video from the scene of the attacks in St. Petersburg and nearby showed thick smoke rising into the sky. St Petersburg is more than 800 miles from Ukraine's border. As Putin's home city, it has rarely been hit during the war because of Russian air defenses. "We managed to save some of the premises and goods. I would like to thank our staff, our heroes—a swift evacuation was carried out," Kim said in a statement. Geolocated footage published on July 24 shows a fire at the parking lot of a Wildberries warehouse and logistics facility in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Sverdlovsk region, which is about 1,200 miles from Ukraine. Fires also broke out at the Utkin Zavod logistics park south of St. Petersburg and at a separate facility in the Shushary district, both of which were suspended, according to Wildberries. Alexander Drozdenko, Leningrad's regional governor, said three people were hospitalized. Wildberries, rival marketplace Ozon and other smaller rivals account for about 8.5 percent of Russia's gross domestic product while employing more than 5 percent of the country's workforce. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Shakeema Edwards.
