Ukrainian drones have struck several warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, in a matter of days, dealing a blow to both the Russian military supply chain and the small businesses that depend on the platform. The attacks mark a new phase in Kyiv's campaign to bring the economic pain of war home to Russia.
After months of hitting oil depots and refineries, Ukraine says it is now targeting logistics hubs used to equip Russian forces, while also disrupting supplies to the army. In the first weekend attack, warehouses at Elektrostal, east of Moscow, and in Kotovsk, some 400km from the border, were hit. Seven night-shift workers were killed at Kotovsk and one fatally wounded at Elektrostal; dozens more were injured. Further strikes hit hubs at Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk.
Kyiv said it struck "major logistics facilities" used to "supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment." Wildberries owner Tatiana Kim said further casualties had been reported. President Volodymyr Zelensky framed the strikes bluntly: "We are, quite justly, bringing the war back home — to Russia."
The attacks have also enraged Russian sellers who rely on the marketplace. "I am a mother of a disabled child, I've built the business myself," one woman wrote in a viral post, saying she had lost a million roubles. Ukraine has also hit sorting terminals of Nova Poshta, retail chain ATB and the Roshen confectionery group, extending the disruption well beyond the military supply line.
The strategy is double-edged. Targeting logistics dents Russia's war machine and rattles domestic confidence, but it also harms ordinary entrepreneurs whom Moscow might otherwise shield. As the war grinds into its fifth year, the battlefield has expanded to include the warehouses, vans and storefronts that keep the Russian economy running.
The strikes expose a tension at the heart of Kyiv's strategy. Targeting logistics hurts the Russian war machine, but the collateral damage to small sellers complicates the moral narrative Ukraine has cultivated in the West. Moscow, for its part, has responded to Ukrainian strikes on its soil with intensified drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities and warehouses, suggesting a tit-for-tat that spares neither side's civilians. How long Wildberries can absorb the losses — and how long its sellers will tolerate them — will shape both the economic and the information battle over the coming winter.
The next Ukrainian strike will reveal whether Moscow treats logistics as a military target worth protecting — or a vulnerability it can no longer hide.
