Following a nighttime Ukrainian drone attack on Wildberries warehouses in the Moscow and Tambov regions, governors, regional branches of the Emergency Situations Ministry (MChS), federal television channels, and major online news outlets did not publish a single photo or video of the fires, according to TV Rain and Agentstvo, which noted the absence of footage from the attack sites in official accounts and on agency websites.
Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov dedicated two posts to the attack in his Telegram channel. One included a photo, but it showed not a burning Wildberries warehouse but a kindergarten in Elektrostal damaged by drone debris. Tambov Region Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov wrote about the attack three times; illustrations appeared only in a post about his visit to a hospital with the injured.
On the websites and social media accounts of the regional MChS branches, there are no reports of fires at the warehouses after the attack. The Tambov MChS Telegram channel had no new posts on July 18, and previous publications date back to April. The Moscow region MChS website also lacks information about the attack.
Federal television channels and major media outlets operate under the same restrictions. NTV and Rossiya 1 devoted about 40 seconds each to the attacks — without footage from the scene. Channel One reported on the attack for about two minutes but did not show the fires. Rossiya 1 later aired a report from a Tambov hospital (interviews with an injured person, doctors, and officials). Pro-government Telegram channels Baza, Mash, and Shot, as well as Vedomosti, Lenta.ru, and Gazeta.Ru, did not publish fire footage. Kommersant illustrated its article with a photo of the kindergarten from Vorobyov's post.
The Telegram channel Ostorozhno, Novosti explained the absence of photos by fears stemming from a ban by authorities on publishing the consequences of attacks (only official information is permitted). In both regions, a ban has been imposed on publishing information about the operation of air defense systems and the aftermath of drone strikes.
In total, eight people were killed and more than 50 injured in the attacks on Wildberries warehouses in the Moscow and Tambov regions. Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim said the company will pay 2 million rubles to the families of the deceased and 1 million rubles to those seriously injured. She also stated that the company is working on payments to sellers whose goods were destroyed, although, according to her, the company has no obligation to compensate for lost goods.