At least 21 logistics facilities of the Russian online marketplace Wildberries have been hit by Ukrainian drones between mid-July and August 5, according to Deutsche Welle. The strikes caused large fires at many warehouses, with some complexes severely damaged or completely destroyed. At least nine people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes were a response to Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. He claimed the warehouses stored sanctioned components used in the production of drones and navigation equipment. After the first attacks, Wildberries removed the 'Everything for the Special Military Operation' section from its website and app, which had featured more than 200,000 products. However, military-related goods remained on sale, accessible through other categories and specific search queries, DW noted.
Analysts estimate the damaged warehouse area accounts for roughly a fifth of the marketplace's total declared logistics infrastructure. Sellers could have lost between 215 billion and 280 billion rubles (2.3–3.0 billion euros) due to the attacks, according to Sergei Semko, lead analyst at research agency Data Insight, as cited by Forbes. He based his calculation on data from a 2024 fire at a warehouse in Shushary, where sellers were compensated nearly 35 billion rubles. As of August 2, the total area of warehouses hit by strikes ranged from 1.21 million to 1.47 million square meters. Damage affected between 893,000 and 1.154 million square meters — 17.2–22.2% of the marketplace's entire logistics infrastructure, publicly estimated at 5.2 million square meters.
Wildberries reported two tranches of compensation: payments were made to 88,000 and 97,000 sellers respectively, with some overlap between the lists. The exact number of sellers who lost goods is unknown. Denis Vetrennikov, CEO of SellerDen, a services ecosystem for sellers, suggested in an interview with Forbes that the figure could be several hundred thousand entrepreneurs.
A new version of Wildberries' offer contract came into effect on July 7, before the attacks. It explicitly classified the consequences of drone use as force majeure circumstances. This allowed the marketplace to avoid reimbursing sellers for goods lost in such incidents. Entrepreneurs note that they effectively could not reject the new offer while continuing to work with the marketplace.
Most sellers complain that the amounts awarded are incomparable to their losses. Anton Bryansky, a seller of garden goods, claims that at one warehouse alone he lost products worth 4.6 million rubles, while Wildberries awarded him 19,170 rubles and 85 kopecks in compensation. "This is not money in our bank account. It's just a number on the screen that they'll let us take out no earlier than in a month," he wrote.
Russian authorities have been slow to provide direct support to the marketplace. It was reported that Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak ordered the preparation of draft measures by August 10. Wildberries said it had paid over 40 million rubles by July 28 to seriously injured employees and families of the deceased. Company founder Tatyana Kim promised to transfer 2 million rubles to families of deceased employees and 1 million to the seriously injured. In open sources, DW found only one confirmation of such a payment, to a victim in Kotovsk, Tambov Oblast.
On the night of August 6, a Wildberries logistics facility near Tver was hit by drones for the second time in two days, according to Tver Governor Vitaly Korolev. He said debris from downed drones "slightly damaged the facade" of the warehouse. No casualties were reported. In the Kalininsky district, where the warehouse is located, fragments of intercepted drones also damaged several outbuildings in a gardening cooperative. Based on footage from local residents, a column of black smoke rose over the city. "An explosion was heard, then flames and thick black smoke," said a subscriber of the 'Tver News and Region' public page. The fire was extinguished by arriving firefighters. The previous attack on this 77,000-square-meter hub occurred on the morning of August 4, when the warehouse suspended operations and employees were evacuated.
In total, last night Russian air defense and electronic warfare systems shot down and intercepted 605 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over 17 regions, as well as Moscow, the Moscow region, Crimea, and the waters of the Azov and Black Seas, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. In the Yaroslavl region, one of Russia's largest oil refineries, Slavneft-YANOS, with a capacity of 15 million tons of oil per year, caught fire as a result of the raid.