Kyiv has intensified its aerial campaign against Wildberries, a linchpin of the Russian consumer economy often called the country’s answer to Amazon. Since July 18, Ukrainian drones have targeted more than a dozen of the retailer’s sites across western and southern Russia, as well as Russian-held Crimea.
Wildberries Warehouse Strikes and Economic Disruption
The most recent wave of attacks focused heavily on logistics hubs. In the Vladimir region east of Moscow, more than 200 firefighters battled a blaze measuring 100,000 square metres—roughly 14 soccer fields—after a drone strike on Monday. Regional governor Alexander Avdeyev reported that three people sustained minor injuries, including a young man with a head wound.
In the Tver region, acting governor Vitaly Korolyov confirmed a Wildberries facility was damaged, though no workers were injured. A separate facility near St. Petersburg also caught fire, but the company reported no casualties there.
The company’s CEO, Tatyana Kim, stated that businesses across 10 countries have suffered significant losses due to these attacks. While Wildberries has rerouted shipping orders to other warehouses to mitigate the impact on vendors, the strategic targeting of these hubs suggests an effort by Kyiv to bring the consequences of the war to ordinary Russian consumers.
Casualties in Chekhov and the Black Sea Coast
In the Moscow region, governor Andrei Vorobyov reported that a drone attack on an unnamed warehouse in Chekhov killed five people and injured 10 others.
Further south, a separate incident at the holiday resort of Gelendzhik in the Krasnodar region left at least seven people dead, including three children, and 40 others wounded. Social media footage verified by Reuters showed a drone slamming into a busy beach area near the town. Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, described the event as a tragedy
and a deliberate attack on civilians with no connection to military infrastructure.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow claimed that air defenses shot down 635 Ukrainian drones overnight, including those over occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas.
Deep-Strike Escalation and Industrial Targets
Ukraine is pushing its strike range further east to weaken Russia’s war effort. In one of its furthest hits to date, Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in Siberia’s Tyumen region, more than 1,000 miles from Moscow. This strike caused a fire, according to regional governor Alexander Moor.
The campaign also continues to hit weapons-related infrastructure. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Kyiv struck a plant in Kirov for the second day. Zelensky stated the facility supplies components for the weapons Russia uses to attack Ukrainian people.
This escalation comes as Russia continues its own barrages. In Zaporizhzhia, Russian glide bombs dropped on residential districts killed one person and wounded dozens, according to regional chief Ivan Fedorov.
The persistence of these deep-territory strikes on civilian-facing infrastructure like Wildberries suggests a shift in Kyiv’s strategy: moving beyond purely military targets to create systemic economic friction within Russia.
