Ukrainian Drones Strike Russian Retailer Wildberries for Second Time in Four Days

Ukrainian drones have struck warehouses belonging to Russia's largest online retailer for the second time in four days, injuring 15 people, according to the company's founder and regional governors.

Logistics hubs run by Wildberries in two south-western cities were hit in overnight attacks and workers evacuated. The strikes follow attacks on warehouses in Tambov and Elektrostal at the weekend, which killed eight people.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Ukraine had hit logistics hubs in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions "involved in providing the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment and other gear" — the stated military rationale for targeting what is, on its face, a consumer retail company.

Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim said workers were evacuated after the attacks on logistics centres in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk in the Stavropol region. "There are no words to describe all the feelings and emotions caused by the attacks on ordinary people, on our employees, on us, who are simply doing our jobs," she wrote on Telegram. "But these situations demonstrate the most important thing: we must continue to do what we do for the benefit of people."

Five people were hurt at a warehouse complex on the outskirts of Nevinnomyssk, according to Governor Vladimir Vladimirov, all receiving outpatient treatment. In Krasnodar, ten people were injured in an attack on a warehouse complex, three of them seriously, said the region's governor Veniamin Kondratyev.

BBC Verify has analysed footage and confirmed fires at both locations. Reports of the strikes first emerged just after 00:00 GMT, with the Russian state news agency TASS reporting that air defences had been activated in Nevinnomyssk. Footage filmed by residents began circulating shortly afterwards, showing large fires engulfing the buildings and columns of smoke rising into the night.

Krasnodar's governor said the region had been hit by a "massive attack", with drone debris striking the grounds of a company in Armavir and killing one employee. The city administration reported that an oil depot was struck, causing a fire. Debris also hit two apartment buildings in Krasnodar and two homes in the village of Dinskaya, though Kondratyev said there were no injuries in those incidents.

Zelensky said the night's operations extended well beyond the warehouses, with Ukraine striking an oil depot as well as a tanker and four cargo ships of the Russian shadow fleet in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Russia has operated that fleet to evade international sanctions imposed on its oil exports since the full-scale invasion of 2022, and it has become an increasingly frequent Ukrainian target.

Reported from the BBC.