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Ukrainian drones struck Wildberries warehouses in Elektrostal east of Moscow and Kotovsk in the Tambov region over the weekend before hitting additional hubs in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk in southern Russia overnight into Wednesday Reuters reported. The initial attacks killed eight workers and injured more than 60 others while the follow-up strikes left at least one person dead and around 14 injured according to regional officials cited by the news agency. Wildberries Russia’s largest online marketplace which handles over 20 million orders daily saw significant portions of its logistics capacity disrupted with Bloomberg noting the strikes have jolted the retail industry that depends on such networks.
Sellers who use the platform as their primary distribution channel have reported devastating inventory losses with one woman who sells stationery items stating her entire stock for the autumn school term was destroyed in the Elektrostal facility. Another trader dealing in teenage clothing told reporters she lost about 1.4 million roubles worth of goods and has halted new supplies as a result. The Moscow Times detailed accounts from entrepreneurs including Alisa Goldberg and Anastasia who described themselves as bankrupt with ongoing tax salaries and supplier obligations remaining despite the fires that consumed their stock.
Wildberries co-founder Tatyana Kim said in a company statement that the firm would not abandon affected sellers and introduced temporary discounts along with waived shipment fees to ease the burden. Contracts revised less than two weeks before the strikes classified Ukrainian drone attacks as force majeure events leaving the company not liable for the destroyed goods according to affected traders. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the situation was difficult for both Wildberries and representatives of small and medium-sized businesses Reuters quoted him as saying.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated “We are quite justly bringing the war back home – to Russia.” Kyiv has described the targeted facilities as major logistics hubs used to supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment to Russian forces though the Kremlin has denied any military role. Serhii Kuzan chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre told the BBC that Wildberries formed a vital part of Russian logistics with its website used by volunteers to buy items including body armour and drone parts.
A business intelligence platform Kontur.Fokus reported that 209000 small and medium-sized companies closed in Russia during the first quarter of 2026 representing a 9 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. Value-added tax rose from 20 percent to 22 percent in January with some tax breaks for businesses eliminated while oil and gas revenues fell 23 percent in the first six months of the year compared with 2025 figures. Prof Ruben Eniklopov of Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona told the BBC there are already a lot of nails and they keep hammering them in adding that the Wildberries attacks represented another nail in the coffin for the sector.
Wildberries and rival Ozon are used by 85 to 90 percent of Russia’s economically active population making the platform central to shopping especially in remote regions according to data cited in the reporting. Industry assessments placed the initial strikes as having knocked out an estimated 7 to 9 percent of Wildberries logistics capacity further straining supply chains already pressured by the ongoing conflict. The company acts as a marketplace rather than a direct seller meaning independent businesses rather than Wildberries itself absorb most of the financial hits from the destroyed inventory.
Russia has carried out its own strikes on Ukrainian logistics targets in recent weeks including warehouses and sorting terminals operated by Nova Poshta the ATB retail chain and the Roshen confectionery group. The mutual targeting of economic infrastructure reflects a broader pattern in a conflict now entering its fifth year since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. No independent confirmation has established that the specific Wildberries facilities struck contained military-related supplies.
