Wildberries sellers face 150B-ruble loss after Ukraine strike
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- Ukraine's military struck two Wildberries warehouses overnight on July 18, hitting the 250,000-square-meter Elektrostal facility outside Moscow and the 108,000-square-meter Kotovsk warehouse in Tambov region, killing eight and injuring more than 80
- Wildberries may face 22 to 36 billion rubles in rebuilding costs (60,000–100,000 rubles per square meter), compared with a 2025 net profit of 175 billion rubles, and the Kotovsk warehouse is set to resume operations July 23
- Data Insight analyst Sergei Semko told Forbes Russia that sellers' unsold inventory in the two warehouses could be worth 150 to 235 billion rubles, with a cautious estimate of 150 to 170 billion rubles
- Wildberries updated its seller contracts on July 7—11 days before the attack—adding drone attacks to its force majeure exemption, leaving sellers who accepted the new terms with slim odds of winning compensation claims in court
- Wildberries sellers have limited insurance recourse: only 5–7% carry policies at all, and just 10–20% of those include sabotage coverage, according to insurance service Polis.online general director Andrei Kreer
- Wildberries has offered affected sellers discounts, temporary suspension of fines, and loan assistance rather than direct compensation, with attorney Konstantin Stepanov saying full reimbursement would nearly consume last year's profit
Why it matters: The contract change Wildberries made just 11 days before the strike shifts the financial burden of wartime damage squarely onto individual sellers, who collectively face losses 4 to 7 times the company's own rebuilding bill. With direct compensation unlikely, insurance coverage minimal, and the force majeure clause legally shielding the platform, thousands of small businesses stored their inventory in what amounts to an uninsurable war zone.
