Ukraine takes aim at Russia’s economy and morale by attacking online retailer
Smoke rises following a Ukrainian drone attack on a warehouse for online retailer Wildberries in St. Petersburg, Russia on Friday, July 24, 2026, with St. Isaac's Cathedral seen in foreground. (UGC via AP, File)2026-08-17T04:05:53Z The attacks began on a July weekend and have continued for a month, stretching from Moscow and St. Petersburg, to cities in the south, and eastward to the Ural Mountains. The targets weren’t oil refineries, maritime hubs or arms plants hit by other Ukrainian strikes, but warehouses that bring the convenience of online shopping across the breadth of Russia.Ukraine’s drones have pummeled the giant depots belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise and bringing the war home to the broad public.The attacks on about 20 Wildberries facilities have underlined Kyiv’s ability to strike far and wide inside Russia and posed a new challenge to President Vladimir Putin nearly 4½ years into his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.They have badly shaken the empire built by Tatyana Kim, the country’s richest female entrepreneur, whose fortune has been estimated at $8.1 billion.Hundreds of thousands of individual sellers have lost their merchandise, sending shock waves across Russia’s economy. Wildberries has drawn massive loans from VTB and other banks as it expanded and likely will have trouble repaying them, putting more pressure on the financial system. An online giant began in a Moscow apartmentKim, 50, was born in Grozny, the capital of the province of Chechnya, to an ethnic Korean family of an engineer and a teacher. She launched Wildberries in 2004 from her Moscow apartment soon after giving birth to her first child while working as an English teacher.“The idea was born from my own needs, and turned out to be needed by hundreds of thousands,” said Kim, now a mother of seven. “If a product or service makes your own life easier, you’re on the right track.” Wildberries initially sold clothing before expanding to appliances, household items, cosmetics, books and more. The platform with its distinct purple logo has become an undisputed leader in e-commerce, accounting for about half of all online orders in Russia. Businesses big and small use it to store, ship and deliver merchandise across the country’s 11 time zones.An estimated 500,000 to 800,000 sellers use Wildberries, often described as Russia’s Amazon. After Western brands fled following the war in Ukraine, online retailers filled the void with merchandise from China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere. Read More The company also acquired a bank, expanded to tourism and even considered buying an airline.In 2024, Kim divorced her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk, triggering a fight for control of the company. Bakalchuk sought the support of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his feared paramilitary forces but eventually lost the battle, which peaked in a shootout at a business center near the Kremlin that left two people dead and several wounded. Wildberries depots are easy targetsThe company has prided itself on relying on about two dozen mammoth warehouses as the core of its vast logistical network stockpiling the goods before shipping to about 100,000 storefront distribution points nationwide.Rival online retailers Ozon and Yandex Market use smaller depots spread over a wider network. Sign up for Morning Wire: Our flagship newsletter breaks down the biggest headlines of the day. Email address Sign up By checking this box, you agree to AP's Terms of Use and acknowledge that AP may collect and use your data pursuant to our Privacy Policy. As Ukraine embarked on a strategy of using long-range drones to attack deep inside Russia, it has expanded from striking military bases, oil refineries and other infrastructure to Wildberries warehouses, which provided particularly soft targets. Since the first attack July 18 in Elektrostal, just east of Moscow, and in the southwestern Tambov region, Wildberries depots burned one after another in massive fires that flooded social media. The depots, some as big as 300,000 square meters (about 3.2 million square feet) were unprotected and easy to set ablaze. It took three days to extinguish the fire in the Elektrostal depot, the Moscow region’s main hub.“These are not military and high-value political targets, therefore they’re not especially secured, they’re not really built to be able to shrug off drone strikes,” said podcaster Mark Galeotti, a Russia expert who heads the Mayak Intelligence consultancy.The strikes have stretched from the European part of Russia to Yekaterinburg, over 2,000 kilometers (about 1,250 miles) from Ukraine’s border.There’s scarce public data, but some estimates indicate that up to 20% of the company’s total warehouse space has been destroyed, with assessments of losses running as high as $6 billion. Kim said Wildberries’ sites have been “reinforced and strengthened” defensively, but the attacks continued. Some warehouses suffered only minor damage, and Ukraine tried to hit them again.Wildberries said it’s rearranging supply chains to create “partner hubs” for storing merchandise — a long and challenging process, given its dependence on big depots. Attacks cause a ripple effectUkrainian officials have said Wildberries sells gear and technical components, including drones, to the military. Moscow denied it, but such dual-use items as drone components, flak jackets or thermal weapon sights remain available on the platform.Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the attacks were designed to disrupt military supplies, breed popular discontent and cause a domino effect in the Russian economy by putting stress on major banks, including VTB and Sberbank, that made massive loans to Wildberries.Wildberries’ debts were estimated at the equivalent of about $15 billion at the end of 2025.Russia’s small and medium businesses already have been hit hard by tax increases, regulatory hurdles and, most recently, a fuel crisis from attacks on oil refineries.The strikes on Wildberries have further exacerbated the business environment, said Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. Consultancy.“I wouldn’t say it’s a nail in the coffin because we’re not there yet, but it’s certainly another enormous difficulty on top of what has already been a very difficult situation for small enterprises,” Weafer said.Wildberries had recently changed its seller policy, exempting it from liability for stock damaged by a “force majeure” that includes drone attacks.Kim pledged to support sellers with discounts on storage, free transfer of goods to other sites, discounted loans and other measures. Wildberries also issued some reimbursements but they covered only a fraction of the losses.Russia’s Central Bank has asked lenders to restructure loans to small and medium businesses that lost merchandise.Meanwhile, many owners of Wildberries pickup points face lost revenue amid the plunging deliveries. Some vented frustrations on social media about going out of business.The lost goods mean tens of thousands of small businesses can’t continue to operate, service their loans or pay taxes. Many are pleading for government support.Galeotti said the strikes reflected Kyiv’s effort to bring the war home to Russia.“It’s not just about seeing great clouds of black smoke over your cities because of some oil refinery on the outskirts being hit,” he said. “You might be a small business whose inventory has just gone up in smoke in one of the Wildberries’ warehouses. Or else you just simply might be an ordinary consumer who just suddenly is no longer going to get the goods that you plan to buy.”Some analysts warn that instead of provoking discontent, the attacks could fuel stronger anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western fervor.The Wildberries attacks have played into the hands of Russian hawks who urge escalating the war, said pro-Kremlin political expert Sergei Markov.“It strengthens the view that it’s necessary to hit Europe,” he said. “And better sooner than later.”Former President Dmitry Medvedev sought to stir up anger at Ukraine for trying to destroy an essential part of daily routine for millions.“Our enemy is fighting not the Russian leadership or the army, but ordinary citizens,” he said. 获取更多RSS：https://feedx.net https://feedx.site
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