Since 18 July 2026, during the Russo-Ukrainian war, Ukraine has conducted waves of drone strikes into Russia targeting warehouses belonging to Wildberries, a large online retailer in Russia which has aided the Russian war effort. Some other retail companies like Lenta were also struck, and on 22 August 2026, the first attack on an Ozon warehouse took place in Chapayevsk, Samara Oblast.
Background
In 2026, Ukraine has been intensifying its attacks in Russia, most importantly its deep strike campaign, called "long-range sanctions" by Ukraine, which include strikes on oil refineries, causing an energy crisis in Russia. Such drone strikes have been considered one of the most successful ways that Ukraine has asymmetric warfare against Russia, which has a much stronger conventional military on paper, but has proven to be incapable of adequately defending against drone-borne airstrikes on vulnerable strategic military targets on its own soil.
On 25 June 2026, President Zelenskyy had approved a 40-day influence operation of long-range, mid-range and SBU operations to push Russia toward ending the war, which UATV later reported had included the Wildberries strikes.
Wildberries in wartime
Rapid expansion since 2022
Wildberries is the largest online retailer in Russia, and is widely considered to be the Russian equivalent to Amazon in the United States. Founded in 2004, the company grew rapidly since the start of Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, after which most Western brands quit the Russian market, and domestic companies such as Wildberries rushed to fill the gap. The chain's gross merchandise value almost tripled from 844 billion rubles (US$10.4 billion) in 2021 to 2.5 trillion rubles (US$30.8 billion) in 2023.
2024 Kremlin-backed Russ Outdoor takeover
The frequency of state inspections by health and safety officers rose sharply in those years: 400 times in 2022, and over 1,600 times in 2023. After a major fire broke out at a Wildberries warehouse in Saint Petersburg in January 2024, the government opened a legal case against the company for allegedly violating fire precautions. Under circumstances that are not entirely clear, it appears that Wildberries was then forced to merge with the much smaller outdoor advertising business Russ one ninth of its size, with Russ' CEO Robert Mirzoyan also becoming CEO of the merged corporation, and Wildberries' CEO Tatyana Kim only keeping 65% of its stakes. Kim's estranged husband Vladislav Bakalchuk, head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, and some analysts described the rushed merger as a hostile takeover through krysha: Mirzoyan allegedly offered to protect Kim against criminal charges for the fire by using his close connections via billionaire senator Suleyman Kerimov to Vladimir Putin himself (who personally signed off on the deal) in return for acquiring a 35% stake in Wildberries, though Kim and Mirzoyan both denied these claims.
On 18 September 2024, a group of armed Chechen men of Kadyrov, led Vladislav Bakalchuk, tried to enter the company's headquarters in Moscow, leading to a shootout that left two Wildberries security guards from Ingushetia dead. Kim contacted the police, and Bakalchuk was briefly arrested on a murder charge, that was subsequently dropped, apparently with the help of Kadyrov's political influence. Analysts concluded that the shootout was Balachuk's failed last-ditch attempt to retain some control over the company through armed violence, and aligning Wildberries with Kadyrov's faction rather than allowing his estranged wife to place herself under the protection of the Kerimov/Mirzoyan faction. Kim subsequently divorced from Balachuk, and a few weeks later, Kadyrov declared a blood feud against Kerimov on local television, although no further conflicts between the factions have been reported since.
Following the 2024 merger with outdoor advertising group Russ, the combined Russ Wildberries group (RWB) reported a 2025 turnover of 6.1 trillion rubles (US$75 billion). However, Wildberries received no dividends over 2025; all of the 51 billion rubles (US$640 million) in dividends went to Russ Outdoor. As of 2026, Wildberries' share of the online retail market of Russia is 45% (well ahead of competitor Ozon at 32%), and is of particular importance when it comes to electronics and non-food retail. Wildberries and Ozon jointly represent about 4% of Russia's gross domestic income, with Wildberries having a client base of approximately two-thirds of the country's adult population.
"Everything for the Special Military Operation"
The company has been accused by Ukraine of contributing to the Russian war effort, supplementing the Russian Armed Forces with components for aerial military equipment, which are used to target Ukrainian cities. On its official website, Wildberries publicly lists drone components, body armour, other military equipment and dual-use goods for sale. This includes drones, drone components, propellants, microcontrollers, video cameras, bullet-resistant vests, and battlefield medicine equipment. Before the Ukrainian strikes on the warehouses began, these items were all commonly found in the section "Всё для СВО", meaning "Everything for the SMO (Special Military Operation)", the official Kremlin name for its invasion of Ukraine. On 26 July 2026, this tag was quietly removed from products on Wildberries.ru, but "some products still carry labels such as ‘tested for the SMO’ or ‘used in the SMO zone’. According to The Moscow Times, more than 200,000 products were previously available under the ‘Everything for the SMO’ tag," Radio Svoboda reported.
Military economics
Because of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Wildberries (in 2022 the largest taxpayer in Russia) and its founder and CEO Tatyana Kim (the richest woman in Russia) had previously already been subjected to international sanctions and trade restrictions. A possible additional reason for targeting Wildberries has been the fact that it provided the largest warehouse capacity in Russia close to the frontline in Ukraine, and the Russian military security services needed a lot of warehouse space to store and move large amounts of materiel, in which Wildberries was thus tasked to participate in.
On 7 July 2026, just 11 days before the strikes began, Wildberries updated its terms and conditions to state that the company could not be held liable for goods destroyed in "force majeure" events, which included drone strikes. This would later add to the fury of sellers, who lost all their merchandise as the depots went up in flames, and would not be compensated for it at all. Russian business media estimated that about 80% of the warehouse buildings and inventory were not insured by either Wildberries or the retail sellers.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the drone strikes were aimed at eliminating the Wildberries "logistics centers involved in supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment, and other military hardware," and were also a response to Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Ukrainian officials say the primary goal of the operations is to disrupt Russian logistics and supplies which are much needed by the Russian forces, and that a secondary goal is to damage the Russian economy and support for the war amongst the populace. On 27 July, Fire Point co-founder and chief designer Denys Shtilerman added that Wildberries' partnership with the Russian state-controlled VTB Bank made it a prime strategic target; since Wildberries was the "largest borrower in Russia", its crash would result in several banks (including VTB) collapsing.
Strikes
July 2026
On 18 July 2026, Wildberries facilities were struck in Kotovsk, Tambov Oblast, and Elektrostal, Moscow Oblast. Online videos of the warehouses engulfed in flames surfaced. Eyewitnesses told journalists or independent media that evacuation of the struck warehouses was chaotic. The fire alarm was allegedly not raised until flames were already raging widely through one of the facilities. Some managers supposedly deliberately kept employees inside buildings rather than organising an evacuation, compelling workers to force open automatic doors manually. Some supervisors ordered workers to return their barcode scanners first before exiting the facility. One worker from a labour union hypothesised that evacuation may have been delayed over concerns that employees might try to steal goods. Experts told the Kommersant that restoring these two facilities could cost up to 35.8 billion rubles ($457 million; c. €405 million), which insurance companies would probably not fully cover.
On 20 July, a building rented by Wildberries as a sorting centre in the industrial park of Yuzhnye Vorota (Южные врата, "Southern Gate") in Domodedovo, Moscow Oblast was struck by drones, engulfing it in flames.
On 20 July 2026, Wildberries facilities were reportedly struck in Koledino (south of Podolsk in Podolsky District), Moscow Oblast.
On 22 July 2026, Wildberries facilities were struck in Krasnodar, Krasnodar Krai, and Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai.
On 23 July 2026, Wildberries facilities were struck in the Novousmansky District of Voronezh Oblast, located between the villages of Nechayevka and Alexandrovka.
On 24 July 2026, Wildberries facilities were struck in Novosaratovka (Utkina Zavod in Vsevolozhsky District) and Shushary (in Pushkinsky District), both nearby St. Petersburg and in Leningrad Oblast. A strike on a Wildberries logistics hub in Emmaus, Kalininsky District, Tver Oblast was reported the same day, although that claim turned out to be erroneous. Wildberries also confirmed a drone-induced fire at its warehouse in Simferopol, the capital city of Russian-occupied Crimea. By that time, at least nine Wildberries warehouses had been hit on 4 days over the course of one week; the Moscow-based company Data Insight estimated the losses so far in merchandise alone at 170 billion roubles (c. $2.2 billion; c. £1.64 billion; c. €1.9 billion). As of 24 July, at least nine people reportedly died as a result of various strikes; seven of these deaths occurred at the Kotovsk facility on 18 July. Wildberries was estimated to have over 200 warehouses and logistics centres across the Russian Federation, which were practically impossible to protect completely from cheap Ukrainian drones with expensive Russian air defence systems.
On 25 July, a strike on a Wildberries warehouse in Yekaterinburg occurred in the morning. However, according to Wildberries, the warehouse itself was missed and operations resumed four hours later, with footage suggesting that only the parking lot was hit.
On 28 July, the 3PL logistics warehouse in Koledino, Podolsky District caught fire after an attack. The strike might have missed its intended target, as a larger Wildberries warehouse was located nearby, but reportedly undamaged and "operating normally"; 3PL ("Third Party Logistics") is an independent logistics company.
On 29 July 2026, Wildberries facilities were struck in Tyushevo, Ryazan Oblast. Russian authorities reported shooting down 45 UAVs over the skies of Ryazan Oblast that night, while "falling debris" caused fires in industrial areas, injuring six people. After the facility was evacuated and firefighting was conducted, Wildberries' press service initially reported the fire had been contained, "most of the goods were saved, and the storage area was virtually untouched", but later said that the warehouse would temporarily stop accepting deliveries. On 6 August, Tatyana Kim personally visited Ryazan to meet with representatives of Ryazan retailers to inform them about the situation and develop support measures, suggesting that entrepreneurs seek compensation from local authorities.
On 30 July, two Wildberries warehouses were hit in Priovrazhnoye, Penza Oblast and Sarapul, Udmurtia, respectively. The same day, a Wildberries warehouse was struck in Zamulyanka, Perm Krai.