Ukrainian drone strikes on sprawling Russian warehouse facilities have produced stark scenes of destruction, with massive pillars of black smoke rising above fires raging at sites belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer and a domestic equivalent of Amazon.

Kyiv's drones first struck the sites over the weekend, then hit five additional Wildberries warehouses during the week, including one in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. Nine people were killed in total, with scores more injured.

The strikes form part of Ukraine's broader aerial campaign designed to undermine Russia's war effort, damage its economy, and make the Russian public feel the consequences of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since 2023, Ukraine has dramatically expanded its long-range drone program, deploying domestically produced unmanned aerial vehicles capable of reaching deep into Russian territory, including Moscow and St. Petersburg — areas that had previously seemed beyond reach. The targeting of logistics and supply-chain infrastructure mirrors tactics Russia has employed against Ukrainian facilities throughout the war, part of a broader shift in modern conflicts toward disrupting commercial networks that sustain both civilian life and military logistics.

Wildberries: How It Became a Wartime Target

Wildberries was founded in 2004 by Tatyana Kim, then a teacher and young mother, initially focusing on clothing sales. Since then, the platform — recognized by its distinctive purple logo — has grown into an industry leader and household name, enabling businesses large and small to sell goods nationwide through its storage, shipping, and delivery infrastructure. In April, Forbes Russia estimated Kim's fortune at $8.1 billion.

The marketplace offers a vast array of products, including clothing, books, cosmetics, toys, appliances, household items, and sporting goods. It features an "E-Pharmacy" section and a travel booking page for flights and hotels.

In 2021, Kim acquired a small bank and transformed it into what is now Wildberries Bank, though the institution has since been sanctioned by both the United Kingdom and the European Union.

Kim has stated that last year the company operated more than 200 logistics facilities totaling over 5.2 million square meters (55 million square feet), with expansion plans for 2026 that include new warehouses in Belarus and Kazakhstan, where Wildberries also operates. The company additionally operates in Russian-held Crimea.

Sergei Semko, a leading analyst at Data Insight, a Moscow-based firm specializing in Russian online retail analysis, estimated that between 500,000 and 800,000 sellers are active on Wildberries. The platform currently accounts for 52% of all online orders in Russia, Semko told The Associated Press.

Shoppers interviewed by AP on Thursday in Moscow praised Wildberries' convenience. One customer said she would continue using the service even if prices rose as a result of the attacks.

"Well, if they raise the prices, I don't mind. It still saves me time, and time is even more valuable," said Irina Potapova.

Competing Claims Over Military Links

While Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not explicitly name Wildberries, he stated that the attacked facilities were involved in supplying gear and various technical components to the Russian military.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that "it is not the case" and accused Kyiv of continuing to "strike civilian targets."

An AP review of the Wildberries website revealed goods that could serve both civilian and military purposes, including body armor, helmets, radios, and other electronics. Some products were even labeled "tested in the SVO" or "SVO fighters' choice" — using the Russian acronym for "special military operation," the Kremlin's official term for the war in Ukraine.

The dual-use nature of such platforms is not unique to Russia. Across modern economies, large e-commerce logistics networks handle enormous volumes of consumer goods that can include items with military applications, making the distinction between civilian and military supply chains a recurring point of contention in conflicts worldwide.

Wildberries did not respond to a request for comment.

Escalating Pattern of Strikes

Russia regularly attacks Ukrainian logistics and retail facilities, including several struck last week.

Ukrainian drones hit sites in Elektrostal, just east of Moscow, and in the Tambov region over the weekend. Two more Wildberries warehouses — in the southern Krasnodar and Stavropol regions — were attacked and set ablaze early Wednesday. On Friday, Kim reported strikes on facilities in St. Petersburg, the adjacent Leningrad region, and Simferopol in Russian-held Crimea.

The attacks have dealt a severe blow to many small businesses across Russia, according to Semko. Online retailers such as Wildberries and its competitors Ozon and Yandex Market have enabled local artisans and entrepreneurs to sell their products across the country's vast territory, he noted.

Since Saturday, individuals have taken to social media to report that business inventory stored by Wildberries at the attacked facilities had been destroyed, with some emotionally recounting their losses.

Assessing the Damage

The full extent of the destruction remains difficult to determine. According to Wildberries' online statements, it took three days to extinguish the fire at the Elektrostal facility — a key distribution hub for Moscow — though the site in Kotovsk, in the Tambov region, resumed operations on Thursday.

In the Stavropol region, authorities reported the fire was extinguished Thursday evening, more than 24 hours after the attack.

Regarding the struck facilities in St. Petersburg, the Leningrad region, and illegally annexed Crimea, Kim said that "some of the spaces and goods were salvaged," without providing further detail.

To support affected sellers, Wildberries offered discounts on storage fees, free transfer of goods to other facilities, discounted loans through Wildberries Bank, and other measures.

Many sellers questioned whether they would be compensated for their losses. Earlier this month, the company amended its seller policy to exempt itself from liability for inventory damaged due to "force majeure," a category that includes drone attacks.

Late Wednesday, Kim announced that the company had begun issuing payments to sellers whose inventory was damaged at the Elektrostal site. "First and foremost, we want to support the smallest and most vulnerable entrepreneurs — there are more than 88,000 of them. The funds will appear on sellers' balances within 24 hours," she said.

Semko cautioned that insufficient data makes a precise assessment difficult, but he estimated that the affected facilities in the Moscow, Tambov, Krasnodar, and Stavropol regions represented approximately 12% of Wildberries' total warehouse space. He placed potential losses of stored goods as high as roughly $3 billion.

Those losses compound the challenges of increased taxes, a fuel crisis, and additional regulatory hurdles confronting many small Russian businesses this year, he noted.

"It is almost a perfect storm," Semko added.

Broader Economic and Psychological Impact

Russia's online retail sector has expanded rapidly since 2022, according to Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro-Advisory Ltd. Consultancy. It now represents about 20% of all retail sales, up from less than half that share five years ago, he told AP.

After numerous Western brands withdrew from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine, Wildberries and Ozon sourced comparable products from Asia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey, fueling the rapid growth of online commerce, Weafer explained.

He estimated Russia's e-commerce sector at approximately $150 billion, with online retail accounting for $80 billion to $90 billion of that total.

The warehouse attacks have intensified the difficulties facing small businesses, which have been "struggling very badly" in recent years, Weafer said, while likely inflicting only "relatively slight" damage on the broader industry and economy, which he described as effectively stagnant but stable.

The strategic significance, he argued, lies elsewhere: "undermining public morale, and getting people to talk much more" about the war and to question the Kremlin's actions.

For years following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the public appeared largely indifferent to the fighting.

"It was something that was happening a long way off," Weafer said. That dynamic shifted this year, with regular strikes on Russian oil refineries causing massive fires, and now the targeting of Wildberries facilities.

"There is now much more awareness, but there's also much more discussion, and more people are questioning what's going on and why is it happening and the conflict lasting so long," he said. "It brings it home."