Ukraine strikes two more warehouses in Russia

MOSCOW — Ukraine launched drone attacks on two more warehouses operated by Russia's largest online retailer on Wednesday, expanding a series of strikes targeting a company that plays a major role in the country's consumer economy.

Tatyana Kim, the co-founder and chief executive of Wildberries, said the warehouses in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk, both located in southern Russia, were hit in the attacks.

Verified social media footage showed a large plume of smoke rising over the warehouse in Krasnodar. Regional authorities said a young woman was killed, while three others were hospitalized with injuries.

The latest attacks follow an earlier Ukrainian drone strike on Saturday that killed eight Wildberries employees, triggered major fires, and disrupted the company's operations.

Ukraine said it is targeting logistics facilities and infrastructure that support Russia's military. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the latest strikes were aimed at logistics hubs involved in supplying Russian forces with drone components and other military equipment.

The Kremlin denied that Wildberries is involved in handling military supplies, maintaining that the company is a civilian business. Russia has also carried out repeated attacks on Ukraine's logistics facilities, energy infrastructure, and power grid since the war began.

Kim condemned the attacks, saying they had deeply affected the company's employees and operations. She said Wildberries is working to restore normal business activities, assist affected sellers, and seek government support, including tax relief and other financial assistance.

She added that the company is redistributing goods among its warehouses to minimize disruptions and maintain business stability for its partners.

The full extent of the damage and its impact on deliveries remained unclear.

Several Moscow residents interviewed by Reuters said they had not yet experienced delivery disruptions. One customer said she had switched to rival online retailer Ozon after learning about the attacks, while another said Wildberries remained his family's preferred shopping platform because of its refund policy and payment-on-delivery options.

An e-commerce industry group, AUREK, has asked the Russian government to defer tax payments for six months for businesses that suffered losses from the attacks.

Wildberries, often compared to Amazon, has grown from an online clothing retailer into one of Russia's largest e-commerce marketplaces. The company has not disclosed the overall scale of the damage caused by the recent strikes.

According to the Association of Internet Trade Companies, online sales in Russia increased 28% in 2025 to 11.5 trillion rubles (about $147 billion). Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said digital platform sales account for approximately 8.5% of the country's gross domestic product.

-Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan, Toby Chopra, Will Dunham and Ron Popeski/Reuters