Ukraine launched drone strikes targeting four Ozon logistics hubs in southern Russia on August 24, 2026, widening its military campaign against the e-commerce sector. The attacks caused fires and injuries, triggered a nearly 30% drop in Ozon shares, and followed extensive earlier strikes on rival retailer Wildberries.
Expanding Drone Strikes Hit Ozon Hubs Across Southern Russia
Ukraine widened its military campaign against Russian e-commerce infrastructure on August 24, 2026, striking four logistics hubs operated by Ozon, Russia’s second-largest online marketplace. The wave of drone attacks brought the total number of targeted Ozon facilities to six within a three-day span, according to Reuters. Kyiv had until last week focused on Ozon’s rival, Wildberries, in attacks on the e-commerce sector — one of the fastest-growing parts of the Russian economy, which is otherwise close to stagnation after 4-1/2 years of war in Ukraine.
The company confirmed that a logistics hub in Makhachkala, Dagestan, caught fire and halted operations following a drone attack. According to preliminary information, several people were injured, the retailer said in a statement.
A fire also broke out at an Ozon logistics hub in Enem on the outskirts of the city of Krasnodar. Workers were evacuated from warehouses in Adygeysk, in the Adygeya region, and in Nevinnomyssk in the Stavropol region, although neither facility was damaged, it said. These incidents followed weekend strikes that halted work at an Ozon logistics centre in the Samara region on Saturday, and the company said work had been halted at its logistics centre in the Orenburg region, from which over 300 people were evacuated.
Market Fallout and Financial Pressures on Parent Company AFK Sistema
Shares in Ozon tumbled by almost 30% on the Moscow Exchange on Monday, and shares in its major shareholder, private equity firm AFK Sistema, fell over 13%. Ozon shares had risen nearly 300% since the market turmoil that followed the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, making Ozon one of Russia’s best-performing stocks until the attacks.
Financial analysts said that unlike privately owned Wildberries, which has the backing of state-owned bank VTB, Ozon’s main shareholder AFK Sistema has a large debt and is unlikely to provide substantial support. The European Union imposed sanctions on Ozon’s and Wildberries’ financial units on 24 July.
Strategic Justifications and State Intervention Plans
The Defense Ministry issued a statement explaining the rationale behind the widening campaign after Ukrainian units targeted 15 of the largest logistics hubs belonging to Wildberries.
“Systematic strikes on storage centers for dual-use goods are making it more difficult for the enemy to operate and are negatively impacting the overall economy of Russia. After Ukrainian units targeted 15 of the largest logistics hubs belonging to Wildberries, it was Ozon’s turn.”
Defense Ministry
The strikes are part of a wider campaign to disrupt Russia’s economic infrastructure, choke off war financing, and bring the realities of the conflict home to ordinary Russians as Moscow continues to pound cities and infrastructure across Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said Wildberries sells goods to the Russian military.
In response to the mounting infrastructure damage, Vladimir Putin promised state help in the restoration of warehouses at a new technological level
and asked the government to design a programme to help the sector. Putin has geared up the Russian state to seize control of companies like Wildberries and Ozon, as well as fuel companies and transport operators, by deeming them too poorly protected from Ukrainian attacks. Special powers set out in a presidential decree will allow the state to take charge of them at a time when Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on oil refineries and e-commerce warehouses. The state will be able to seize physical and financial assets, and assume formal ownership rights, if entities responsible for such facilities are judged to have failed to protect them and are too slow to repair them after any attack. It applies to fuel, energy, industrial, communications, transport and logistics facilities and other objects regarded as critically important for security and economic stability.
