Firefighters walk through smoke from a fire at the logistics facility of Russian e-commerce company Wildberries in the town of Elektrostal, on the outskirts of Moscow, on July 18, 2026. On July 18, 2026, officials announced that eight people were killed and 24 injured in Ukrainian drone attacks on two Russian distribution centers.
Tatyana Makeeva | AFP | Getty Images
Ukraine intensifies attacks on Russia AmazonStyle retail giant Wildberries has signaled a new phase in the war as Kiev seeks to inflict fresh pain on Russia’s economy.
Over the past week, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked major logistics centers on Russian territory, including five facilities belonging to Wildberry between Saturday and Wednesday.
The attack, which follows months of drone attacks on Russian oil depots and refineries, appears aimed at severely disrupting Moscow’s supply chains and increasing the financial burden facing Russia’s businesses and state budget.
Wildberries is Russia’s largest online retailer, comparable to the US e-commerce giant Amazon. Founded in 2004, the company currently employs approximately 48,000 people.
“Ukraine has found a new point of pressure on Russia,” Jimmy Rushton, an independent foreign policy analyst based in Ukraine, said on social media on Wednesday.
“If these attacks continue, Wildberries (Russia’s equivalent of Amazon and as important for domestic logistics as Amazon in the US or UK) will cease to exist,” he added.
Tatyana Kim, the company’s owner and Russia’s richest woman, said on Wednesday that Wild Berry’s logistics hubs in two southwestern cities, Krasnodar and Stavropol regions, were both attacked overnight.
One person was reportedly killed and several others injured in the attack, Kim said. The drone attack followed separate attacks on a retailer’s warehouse in central Russia four days earlier that killed eight people, Russian authorities said.
“There are no words to describe all the feelings and emotions caused by this attack on the public, on our employees and on those of us who are just doing our jobs,” Kim said via Telegram, according to a translation.
“But these situations demonstrate the most important thing: we must continue to do what is in the interest of the people,” she added.
Logistics bases are likely to continue to be major targets
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the sites targeted by the Ukrainian drones were involved in providing drone parts, navigation equipment and other military components to the Russian military.
Serhiy Kuzan, chairman of the Kiev-based think tank Ukraine Center for Security Cooperation, said the attack on Wildberry had a dual purpose: to hamper Russia’s economy and reduce the capabilities of its military-industrial complex.
“The destruction of this logistics infrastructure is a serious blow to the Russian economy and, as a result, to the state budget, which is the source of funding for the armed invasion of Ukraine,” Kuzan told CNBC in an email.
In this pool photo distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with the Moscow establishment leadership of the Russian-controlled region of Zaporizhzhya region at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 20, 2026.
Alexander Kazakov AFP | Getty Images
Citing data from the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Kuzan said Wildberries is a major player in Russia’s e-commerce sector, with the retail giant’s market alone accounting for about 3% of Russia’s gross domestic product.
He estimated that Wild Berry’s total losses amounted to approximately $2.3 billion, noting that these losses exceed the combined annual budgets of Russia’s 53 regions and are likely to trigger a wave of bankruptcies of small and medium-sized enterprises.
“Given the size of the targeted facilities and their role in supplying both the civilian sector and the military-industrial complex, we expect this tactic to continue,” Kuzan said.
“This allows Ukraine to inflict disproportionately significant economic losses on its adversaries with relatively limited resources,” he added.
