Russian industrial sites on fire after Ukrainian drone attacks
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Wildberries evacuated its warehouses in Ryazan after Ukrainian drone strikes damaged at least seven of its facilities across Russia in recent days, destroying about 10% of the company's storage capacity, the retailer and local authorities said.
- Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov reported that 45 drones were shot down over the region overnight Tuesday, with falling debris sparking fires in an industrial area, damaging a home and a building, and hospitalizing six people.
- Ukraine accuses Wildberries of helping supply the Russian army, framing its strikes on the online retailer as a military target — though the company says the damage has hit tens of thousands of small businesses that sell goods and services on the platform.
- Russia struck back across the border: missile debris killed a woman in Taganrog, a drone attack killed a man and wounded three others in Kherson, and five people including a child were injured in Dnipropetrovsk after dozens of Russian drone, aerial bomb, and artillery strikes, regional authorities said.
- Acting Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara said in a Wednesday interview that Ukraine cannot go "punch for punch" militarily against Russia and must use resources carefully in an "asymmetric" fashion.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday to discuss plans for Ukraine to produce Patriot missile interceptors and the revival of peace talks with Russia.
Why it matters: Roughly 10% of Wildberries' storage capacity is now gone and tens of thousands of small sellers on the platform are absorbing the fallout — a direct hit on civilian commerce that Kyiv justifies by accusing the retailer of supplying Russia's army, even as Russia continues retaliatory strikes killing and wounding Ukrainian civilians.
