A series of strikes by Ukraine against the warehouses of Russia’s largest online retailer could set hundreds of millions of dollars worth of inventory ablaze, sparking an online uproar among the country’s beleaguered small business owners.
Over the weekend, Ukrainian drones attacked Wildberry distribution centers in Elektrostal in the Moscow region and Kotovsk in the Tambov region. A second wave of attacks hit distribution warehouses in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions early Wednesday, while state media in southwestern Voronezh also reported that drone attacks forced the closure of a wild berry warehouse there late Wednesday and into Thursday.
The attack on Wildberry, Russia’s equivalent of e-commerce giant Amazon, disrupted the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Russians and brought Russia’s war with Ukraine even closer to home. And they are stepping up their economic warfare campaign in Ukraine, with waves of long-range drone attacks on refineries leading to long lines at pumps across Russia.
The attack was also deadly. Seven people were killed in Kotovsk and one in Elektrostal, regional officials said. At least one person has been killed in a recent airstrike in southern Russia, according to the governor of the Krasnodar region.
Kiev acknowledged the attack on the Wildberry warehouse and said the facility was a legitimate military target because it supplies Russian front-line forces in Ukraine. “Major logistics facilities have been damaged,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a statement on Saturday, without naming Wildberry, adding that the warehouses were being used “to supply authorized parts for drone production and navigation equipment.”
The Russian government denies that Wildberry supplies the Russian military. A search for “munitions” on Wildberry’s website on Thursday turned up more than 78,000 items, including bulletproof vests, first aid kits and food. The site also offers drone equipment such as FPV goggles and kits that can be used on the battlefield.
The Kremlin acknowledged that the strike had caused economic damage. “The situation is certainly difficult, given the losses suffered both by the company itself and by small and medium-sized enterprises,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday of Wild Berry’s in response to a question about possible measures to protect companies affected by the strike.
The economic impact of the strike is not yet clear. The Russian edition of Forbes cited preliminary estimates suggesting Wild Berry’s would lose up to 9% of its warehouse space and that restoring its capacity could cost as much as 33 billion rubles ($421 million). The report said losses on sellers’ goods could amount to at least 150 billion rubles ($1.9 billion). Business daily Kommersant estimated that around 10% of the company’s total logistics capacity was affected by the combined drone attack.
CNN has reached out to Wildberry for comment on the economic impact of the strike and allegations that its warehouses are supplying the Russian military.
Russian entrepreneurs who rely on wild berries for distribution have taken to social media to complain about the strike and the devastating impact on their businesses.
“About 40% of our business was dead,” one fashion retailer said in a Threads post.
“Of course, compared to human life, that’s just money. The most important thing is that we and our loved ones are safe and sound. We have never stored this much product in our market (Wild Berry’s) warehouse. However, due to the new requirements, we had to urgently move inventory from our own warehouse, repack it and ship it to Wild Berry’s.”
Another video circulating on a Ukrainian account showed a Russian retailer storing goods in Wild Berry’s warehouses in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions saying, “We just want this SMO (Special Military Operation) to end.”
Several Russian retailers complained that Wildberries’ terms and conditions were recently changed to state that the e-retailer is not responsible for damages caused by drone attacks.
In an interview published in business daily RBC, Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim said her company was in talks with Russian authorities about possible tax breaks and other measures to help sellers affected by the attack.
“We spoke today with one of the authorities, specifically the Federal Tax Service, about the possibility of developing measures to reduce the tax burden of affected entrepreneurs,” she said. “This is not about canceling taxes completely, but rather about the possibility of granting deferrals and similar arrangements,” Kim said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian commentators say Wildberry’s accusations do not tell the whole story, arguing that the Russians ignore the fact that Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which ultimately led to Ukraine’s all-out attack on Russia.
Katerina Bohuslavska, who posts on X as “Kate from Kharkiv,” wrote, “Another flood of videos from Russians lamenting the “shock” and “unfairness” of the attack on the Wild Berry warehouse. “It doesn’t cross their minds how unfair it felt when we were just living our lives in our own countries, in our own homes, not bothering anyone, until they started tearing apart our cities.” morning. ”
Ukrainian social media influencer and former government official Anton Gerashchenko said Russians should point the finger of blame at Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Russians have learned that their country is at war. The next step is to understand who is responsible for all the damage caused to Russia (Putin),” he wrote to X.
“Wildberries is no longer just an online marketplace for clothing and household goods. The platform sells weapons, bulletproof vests, drones, drone parts, and optical fibers used in drones. All of these items are used in the war against Ukraine and contribute to the killing of Ukrainians. Therefore, such facilities are legitimate military targets for the Ukrainian military.”
Russians are unlikely to direct their anger at Putin, especially in a country where dissent is not tolerated and criticism of the military is illegal. But the wild berry strike is bringing war to the Russians in a new way.
