Ukrainian drones struck Wildberries warehouses in Russia over several days, killing seven workers on a nightshift in Kotovsk in the Tambov region and fatally wounding one worker in Elektrostal east of Moscow. The attacks also injured dozens more workers and destroyed goods worth an estimated £750m.
Wildberries sites across Russia
The first weekend strike hit two warehouses, one in Elektrostal and one in Kotovsk. Another Wildberries warehouse in Koledino south of Moscow was targeted early on Monday, and further attacks overnight into Wednesday hit Wildberries logistic hubs at Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk in the Stavropol region. The spread across four Wildberries warehouses and hubs shows how the drone campaign has reached deep into Russia's retail and transport network.
Tatiana Kim, the Wildberries owner, said further casualties had been reported after the warehouse attacks. Volodymyr Zelensky said, "We are, quite justly, bringing the war back home - to Russia," after the strikes.
Ukraine's logistics claim
Ukraine says it is targeting major logistics facilities used to supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment. That claim places the warehouse strikes inside a wider campaign of long-distance attacks on supply routes and energy facilities, even as the hits also landed on a major online retailer used by hundreds of Russian sellers.
Wildberries is Russia's biggest online retailer, so damage to its warehouses is not just a factory-floor problem. Sellers that rely on the platform face delays and lost stock when a warehouse burns or a logistics hub is taken out of service, and the destruction of goods worth £750m turns the strikes into a direct business loss as well as a wartime one.
Russia and Ukraine drone war
Russia has targeted Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, and recent Russian attacks have hit Ukrainian warehouses and cargo terminals, including sorting terminals for Nova Poshta and warehouses owned by ATB and Roshen. Ukraine's long-distance drone campaign has also cut off annexed Crimea and led to fuel shortages across Russia.
The unresolved question is how many of the reported casualties and injuries can be tied to each separate Wildberries site. The strikes have already moved from a single weekend raid to a sequence that kept adding damage through Wednesday, and that pattern is what Wildberries workers and sellers will watch next.
