Ukrainian drones hit more sites of Russian online retailer Wildberries

Ukrainian drones have hit warehouses belonging to Russia’s biggest online retailer again, injuring 15 people, according to the company’s founder and regional governors.

Logistics hubs run by Wildberries in two south-west cities were impacted by overnight attacks and workers evacuated, the founder said.

It is the second time Ukraine has attacked the firm’s facilities in four days, with warehouses in Tambov and Elektrostal hit over the weekend, killing eight people.

Ukrainian 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”.

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 in a warehouse complex on the outskirts of Nevinnomyssk, Governor Vladimir Vladimirov said, with everyone receiving outpatient treatment.

In Krasnodar, ten people were injured in an attack on a warehouse complex, with three in a serious condition, the region’s governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.

BBC Verify has analysed footage and confirmed fires in the two 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. Dramatic footage filmed by locals began to emerge shortly after.

In both locations, the impact appears substantial, with large fires engulfing the buildings and huge columns of smoke rising into the air.

Krasnodar’s governor said the region was hit by a “massive attack last night”, with drone debris also hitting the grounds of a company in Armavir and killing one employee. The city administration reported that an oil depot was struck, causing a fire.

Drone fragments also hit two apartment buildings in Krasnodar and two homes in the village of Dinskaya, Kondratyev said. There were no injuries.

Zelensky said Ukraine had struck an oil depot, as well as a tanker and four cargo ships of the Russian shadow fleet in the waters of the Sea of Azov and Black Sea.

Russia has been operating a “shadow fleet” to evade international sanctions imposed on its oil exports after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The overnight strikes mark the second targeting of Wildberries’ facilities in less than a week.

Recently published satellite imagery gives an indication of the damage caused to other Wildberries sites that were hit by Ukrainian strikes over the weekend.

In Elektrostal, a city near the capital Moscow, three buildings were completely gutted.

Serhii Kuzan, chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre, previously told the BBC that Wildberries’ website had been used by Russian volunteers to buy military equipment.

“The primary rationale for striking Wildberries’ warehouses is to disrupt Russian logistics and the supply of dual-use goods, critical electronics, sanctioned goods and the like to the Russian army and Russian arms manufacturers,” he said.

“The collateral damage from such strikes could also have a serious impact on the Russian economy, as well as a psychological effect on Russian society and, likely, on continued support for the war.”

Unlike retail giant Amazon, Wildberries and its rival Ozon act almost entirely as marketplaces, connecting independent sellers with buyers across Russia, storing and delivering their goods, and handling payments.

The recent strikes have impacted hundreds of sellers whose livelihoods depend on online marketplaces.

Trader Elena, not her real name, told BBC Russian she had lost clothing she sells in the attacks, which is her only income.

She said that “if there are more strikes, I probably won’t manage. It’s terrifying to keep loading my goods into what feels like a furnace”.

Additional reporting by Paul Brown, BBC Verify, Vitaly Shevchenko, and BBC Russian