Ukraine Drones Hit Wildberries Warehouses Across Russia
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- Ukrainian drones struck a Wildberries warehouse in Yekaterinburg — 2,087km from the Ukrainian border — with two plumes of grey smoke rising from the roof as security guards fired at the incoming drones, hours after an Al Jazeera interview with a local resident.
- At least 12 Wildberries warehouses have been fully or partially destroyed by roughly two dozen Ukrainian drone strikes since mid-July, killing 13 employees and wounding dozens, with the latest strike hitting a logistical hub on the outskirts of Voronezh.
- Wildberries operates 40 mammoth warehouses and roughly 200 smaller facilities totaling 5.2 million square meters of storage, posting $79 billion in 2025 turnover — nearly 3% of Russia's GDP and almost half of its online retail.
- Ukraine justifies the strikes by calling the warehouses 'legitimate targets' that store military and dual-use goods including drone components, navigation equipment, first aid kits, and flak jackets; Wildberries and the Kremlin deny supplying the Russian military.
- Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher at Germany's Bremen University, told Al Jazeera the strikes 'aren't about the front line' but about 'how Russia's economy functions and what social and political consequences' they produce, adding they 'won't affect [Russian forces'] war-readiness at all' since comparable goods are sold elsewhere.
- Wildberries borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars from Kremlin-controlled banks and does not insure against drone or missile damage — leaving small retailers exposed, including one weeping business owner who said online she had 'officially become a jobless beggar' after a July 22 warehouse fire.
- Denys Schtillerman, Ukrainian co-owner of drone and missile manufacturer Fire Point, said on television July 28: 'We need to finish off Wildberries and [rival retailer] Ozon, and it will collapse [Russia's] bank system.'
Why it matters: Ukraine is extending the war into Russia's civilian economy by repeatedly striking Wildberries, which generates nearly 3% of Russian GDP and carries hundreds of millions in loans from Kremlin-controlled banks. Analysts say the strikes won't meaningfully weaken Russian military capacity — but uninsured small retailers storing goods at Wildberries warehouses are already losing their livelihoods, with one telling Al Jazeera she has 'become a jobless beggar.'
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