Ukraine has hit seven of Russian online retailer Wildberries’ 10 biggest warehouses, military says

Ukraine Hits Seven of Wildberries’ Biggest Hubs

Poinews.com – Ukraine has hit seven of Russian online retailer Wildberries’ ten largest warehouses, according to a statement from Kyiv’s Ministry of Defence. The sustained drone campaign, which began in mid-July, has disabled major logistics nodes stretching from the Moscow region to the Urals, striking at the backbone of Russia’s e-commerce supply chain and its military procurement network alike.

The Scale of the Target

Wildberries operates as Russia’s dominant marketplace, processing roughly half of all domestic online orders and supporting several hundred thousand sellers across eleven time zones. Annual turnover sits in the range of €70–75 billion, a figure that various estimates peg at just over two percent of Russian GDP. After Western brands withdrew from the market following the full-scale invasion, Wildberries absorbed much of the displaced consumer demand, swelling its share of the sector considerably.

That centrality makes the company a high-value strategic target. Ukrainian officials have explained that the objective is threefold: sever military supply routes that run through commercial logistics channels, provoke domestic economic discontent, and impose financial pressure on lenders such as VTB and Sberbank, which have extended approximately €13 billion in credit to a firm now struggling to service those debts.

Seven of Ten Major Facilities Disabled

In a weekend announcement, Ukraine’s defence ministry confirmed a strike on Wildberries’ single largest facility: a 250,000-square-metre complex at the Koledino industrial park in Podolsk, Moscow region, roughly 420 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. The company confirmed the impact ignited a fire and forced it to reroute supply chains. On the same night, a second depot in nearby Domodedovo was also struck.

Since the operation launched in July, Ukraine has hit seven of Russian logistics hubs belonging to the country’s largest online retailer, rendering them inoperable. The Associated Press reports that approximately twenty Wildberries facilities have been struck in total across the campaign.

Geographic Reach and Campaign Timeline

The operation opened on the weekend of 18 July, when drones struck sites in Elektrostal, east of Moscow, and in the Tambov region. From those initial strikes the campaign expanded outward from the capital and St Petersburg, reaching into southern Russia and extending as far as Yekaterinburg in the Urals — more than 2,000 kilometres from Ukrainian territory. The geographic spread underscores Ukraine’s ability to project strike capability deep inside Russian territory nearly four and a half years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

Kyiv has justified the strikes on the grounds that Wildberries assists in arming the Russian military, providing drone components and navigation equipment alongside its consumer merchandise. The ripple effects, officials noted, extend well beyond the retailer itself, touching banking, consumer confidence, and the broader logistics architecture on which both civilian commerce and military procurement depend.

Analysts Identify a Structural Gap

The US-based Institute for the Study of War assessed that the campaign is compressing Russia’s economy while exposing a more fundamental deficiency in its defensive posture.

“Moscow simply does not have enough air-defence coverage to shield every piece of infrastructure in its rear, even ten of its most valuable commercial sites,” the ISW assessment concluded.

The repeated strikes on commercial logistics nodes suggest that Russia’s air-defence allocation prioritises military and energy infrastructure, leaving the commercial supply chain — which doubles as a military procurement channel — comparatively exposed.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Wildberries warehouses has Ukraine struck? Ukraine has hit seven of Russian online retailer Wildberries’ ten largest warehouses, with approximately twenty facilities struck in total across the campaign since July.

Where are the struck facilities located? Sites hit include locations in the Moscow region (Podolsk, Domodedovo, Elektrostal), the Tambov region, southern Russia, and as far east as Yekaterinburg in the Urals, more than 2,000 kilometres from the Ukrainian border.

Why is Wildberries a military target? Ukrainian officials state that the retailer transports drone components and navigation equipment for the Russian military alongside consumer goods, making its logistics network a functional extension of the supply chain.

What is the economic significance of the strikes? Wildberries processes roughly half of Russia’s online orders and supports several hundred thousand sellers. Disabling its major hubs disrupts civilian commerce, pressures lenders holding approximately €13 billion in credit, and tests consumer confidence in the domestic retail sector.