Waves of Ukrainian explosive-laden drones tore through two sprawling warehouses belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer over the weekend, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 60 in what regional officials and analysts described as among the deadliest single rounds of Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil since the war’s early phase.
Ukrainian drones struck warehouses operated by Wildberries, often described as Russia’s answer to Amazon, in overnight and daytime attacks that killed at least nine people and injured more than 60 others, according to Russian officials.
Seven workers died, and 25 were wounded at a facility in the city of Kotovsk in the Tambov region, roughly 295 miles southeast of Moscow, Tambov regional governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said. A second strike on a Wildberries warehouse in Elektrostal, in the Moscow region roughly 30 miles east of the Russian capital, killed one person and wounded 37 more, officials said. Both facilities caught fire, though Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim said later Saturday that the blaze in Kotovsk had been extinguished.
Ukraine Claims Responsibility, Citing Military Supply Chains
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the strikes in a Telegram post Saturday, describing the targets as “significant logistical facilities in the Moscow and Tambov regions,” located more than 500 and nearly 700 kilometres from the front line respectively. “These facilities were used by the aggressor to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment,” Zelensky wrote, adding that an oil facility was also struck in the same operation.
Ukraine’s General Staff said separately that a fuel depot in Noginsk targeted overnight had been supplying the Russian armed forces, while Zelensky said Ukrainian special operations forces had also conducted strikes against targets in the Sea of Azov and in Russian-occupied territory, including Crimea.
A Ukrainian military statement offered a vivid picture of the damage at the larger of the two sites: “A huge Wildberries warehouse covering 188,000 square meters is blazing brightly,” the statement said, “and black smoke can be seen for kilometres.” Video circulating from both Ukrainian and Russian sources showed large plumes of grey smoke rising over the affected areas.
Why Ukraine Is Targeting A Retail Giant
The choice of target reflects a deliberate strategic calculation rather than incidental damage, according to Serhii Kuzan, chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre. Speaking to the BBC, Kuzan said Wildberries functions as a “vital component” of Russian logistics, noting its platform has been used by Russian volunteers and procurement networks to purchase military-linked equipment including walkie-talkies, body armour and drone components.
“The primary rationale for striking Wildberries’ warehouses is to disrupt Russian logistics and the supply of dual-use goods, critical electronics, sanctioned goods and the like to the Russian army and Russian arms manufacturers,” Kuzan said. He added that the fallout extends beyond the immediate military supply chain: “The collateral damage from such strikes could also have a serious impact on the Russian economy, as well as a psychological effect on Russian society and, likely, on continued support for the war.”
The merged RWB group, which combines Wildberries with the advertising firm Russ, was valued at roughly 12.6 billion dollars by Forbes Russia earlier this year.
The Scale Of The Overnight Barrage
The strikes on the two warehouses were part of a far larger overnight bombardment. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 370 drones were launched toward the Moscow region alone overnight, and that between July 11 and 18, nearly 1,892 Ukrainian drones bound for Moscow had been intercepted. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences shot down 379 Ukrainian drones overnight across 19 Russian regions, as well as over annexed Crimea, the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
In a separate incident roughly 110 miles east of Moscow, a Ukrainian drone struck a residential building in the city of Vladimir, sparking a brief fire, according to regional governor Alexander Avdeyev, who said there were no casualties. A damaged kindergarten was also reported in Elektrostal following the strikes, according to regional authorities.
Part Of A Broader Campaign Of ‘Long-Range Sanctions’
The Wildberries strikes are the latest escalation in a campaign Kyiv has referred to as “long-range sanctions,” an extended effort that has primarily targeted Russia’s oil infrastructure and has been credited with triggering a significant fuel crisis inside one of the world’s largest oil-producing countries.
Kyiv has intensified these strikes on Russian territory in recent months, framing them as retribution for more than four years of Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure. Russian officials, in turn, have continued to describe the campaign as attacks on civilian and commercial infrastructure rather than legitimate military targets, even as Kyiv insists the facilities it strikes serve dual military and civilian purposes.
A War Entering Its Fifth Year With No Sign Of Slowing
Saturday’s attacks underscore how deeply Ukraine’s long-range strike capability has evolved since the war’s opening phase, when Kyiv’s ability to hit targets deep inside Russian territory was limited. Now well into the war’s fifth year, Ukrainian forces continue to press an aggressive aerial campaign against Russian energy infrastructure and military-linked logistics networks, seeking both to degrade Moscow’s war-fighting capacity and to impose direct costs on Russian civilian life.
Whether the scale of Saturday’s casualties, among the highest from a single round of Ukrainian strikes inside Russia in roughly two years, marks a turning point in the intensity of the conflict, or simply the latest escalation in an already grinding war of attrition, remains to be seen as both sides show no indication of scaling back their respective campaigns.
