The Kremlin said it may have to support Wildberries after Ukrainian drone strikes at Wildberries warehouses cut 10% of the retailer's warehousing capacity and destroyed huge amounts of stock. The online retailer is central to Russia's economic growth plans, and the damage has pushed state support onto the table for a company that moves goods for third-party sellers.
Wildberries and VTB
Dmitry Peskov praised Wildberries for “providing assistance to third-party sellers whose goods were stored in damaged warehouses.” A senior industry source told that Wildberries might have to seek government support through state-controlled banks to keep operating at scale. That route would place the retailer’s losses inside the banking system rather than leaving them as a private inventory problem.
Denys Shtilerman said on 27 July that Wildberries was “the largest borrower in Russia” and argued that the company’s collapse would bring down “a large number of banks, including VTB.” His remarks point to why the retailer’s troubles are being treated in Moscow as a broader financial risk, not only a logistics setback.
Kyiv and Wildberries
Kyiv said its forces are attacking Wildberries because of its role in supplying Moscow’s army, calling it “Russia’s Amazon.” That claim sets up the Kremlin’s dilemma: Wildberries is being hit as part of the Ukraine war, while The Kremlin is discussing possible support for the same company to protect operations and credit links.
Wildberries said it has so far paid out 40 million roubles, or US$508,582, to the families of those killed or injured in Ukrainian drone attacks on its warehouses. Marina Gorshkova, speaking to her Instagram audience of 1.3 million people, said she was appealing to “the country’s leadership,” showing how the strikes have reached sellers who depend on the company’s storage network.
The Kremlin’s next move
Wildberries and Ozon are central to the Russian government’s plans to spur economic growth, which helps explain why support through banks is being discussed now. The practical question is how much help Wildberries will get and whether that support will be routed through VTB or another state-controlled lender, since the scale of the warehouse damage already includes a 10% loss of capacity.
