Ukraine Drones Hit Wildberries Sites, Kill 6 in Kirov
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- Wildberries co-founder Tatyana Kim confirmed drones hit company warehouses in St. Petersburg, the Leningrad region and Crimea overnight — the third such wave in less than a week — with fires breaking out at several sites though "parts" of warehouses were saved.
- Ukrainian President Zelensky publicly claimed responsibility, saying the strikes targeted Russian logistics supplying drone components, navigation equipment and military gear to "the occupying army," and that the operation "remains underway."
- A separate Ukrainian attack on an industrial enterprise in the Kirov region killed six people and injured more than two dozen, per local governor Aleksandr Sokolov; Zelensky said the facility supplies aviation and missile equipment to Russia's military.
- Before Friday's wave, five Wildberries warehouses — roughly 10% of the company's logistics capacity — had been struck since the prior weekend, according to Kommersant, with operations at two St. Petersburg/Leningrad sites halted and Crimean staff evacuated.
- Wildberries and rival Ozon together move goods and services worth the equivalent of 8.5% of Russia's GDP and employ 4 million people, more than 5% of the country's workforce, underscoring the economic scale of the campaign.
- NASA satellite imagery showed two large smoke plumes over St. Petersburg, visible from space; the Moscow Times verified one rose from Wildberries' Shushary logistics hub, the other from the nearby Utkina Zavod storage complex.
- Leningrad Governor Alexander Drozdenko reported three injuries in his region during the attack, though Kim said no Wildberries employees were hurt at the company sites.
Why it matters: Ukraine has now hit roughly 10% of Wildberries' logistics capacity in under a week, targeting a company whose operations — alongside Ozon — equal 8.5% of Russian GDP and 4 million jobs. Zelensky's explicit justification that Wildberries warehouses supply drone and military components reframes a consumer e-commerce giant as a legitimate wartime target, blurring the line between commercial and military infrastructure inside Russia.
