Ukraine hits more Wildberries facilities, continuing nearly two weeks of strikes on online retailer — SkimNews
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- Ukraine struck 16 Wildberries facilities across Russia in under two weeks starting July 18, killing nine and injuring scores across Moscow, Tambov, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, and Crimea regions.
- Zelensky said the depots supplied Russia's military; the Kremlin denied it, but an AP search found dual-use items on Wildberries marked "tested in the SVO," Russia's acronym for its war in Ukraine.
- Wildberries accounts for 52% of Russia's online orders with 500,000-800,000 sellers; analyst Sergei Semko estimated goods worth up to $3 billion were destroyed across roughly 12% of the company's warehouse space.
- Wildberries revised its seller policy to exempt itself from liability for "force majeure" including drone attacks, while reimbursing over 97,000 businesses and offering discounted loans through Wildberries Bank.
- Chris Weafer of Macro-Advisory Ltd. said the strikes aim primarily to "undermine public morale" rather than hurt the economy, since damage to Russia's $80-90 billion online retail sector is "relatively slight."
Why it matters: The strikes threaten Russia's dominant e-commerce platform, which handles 52% of online orders and supports up to 800,000 sellers, with potential losses of $3 billion. The real strategic value, per analyst Chris Weafer, is psychological: forcing Russian shoppers to confront the war's cost in their daily lives, breaking years of complacency.
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