Following a series of systematic drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and tankers in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, Ukraine has expanded its campaign to target Russia's logistics infrastructure. Since last week, warehouses belonging to Russia's largest online marketplace, Wildberries, have come under what Ukraine describes as "long-range sanctions".
While the company's founder, billionaire Tatyana Kim, has portrayed the attacks as targeting "regular people", and Wildberries sellers have complained about financial losses and strikes on "civilian sites", the marketplace has long been a major player in supporting both the Russian military and the country's wider economy – supplying everything from body armour, combat helmets and fibre-optic cable for drones to helping circumvent Western sanctions.
How did Wildberries grow into Russia's equivalent of Amazon? Why are the strikes on its logistics centres being described as retaliation for attacks on Nova Poshta (Nova Post), Ukraine's largest private postal operator? And what is the estimated scale of the damage?
What happened
On the night of 17-18 July, Ukraine began carrying out drone strikes on Wildberries logistics centres. Warehouses in Kotovsk (Tambov Oblast) and Elektrostal near Moscow were hit. Fires broke out, and the company reported that eight people had been killed.
The targets were not chosen randomly. Wildberries has described its more than 360,000-square-metre warehouse in Elektrostal as its largest and most technologically advanced logistics centre. It was there that Tatyana Kim gave an interview to the Kremlin-aligned news outlet Vedomosti in October 2024, boasting about testing autonomous transport vehicles to make deliveries between warehouse buildings.
The warehouse in Kotovsk, which opened in May 2025, was a key logistics hub for Russia's Central Federal District and stored up to 54 million items.
On the night of 21-22 July, Ukrainian drones struck Wildberries warehouses for a second time. This time, major logistics centres in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk in Stavropol Krai were targeted, with large fires breaking out at both sites.
The Krasnodar hub is also one of the largest in the Wildberries network, covering around 150,000 sq m. The logistics centre in Nevinnomyssk is smaller but is likewise considered one of the company's key facilities.
Why Ukraine is targeting Wildberries facilities
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the question following the first wave of attacks on 18 July. He described the "long-range sanctions" against warehouses in Moscow and Tambov oblasts as a response to Russian attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.
The president was likely referring to Russia's repeated strikes on Nova Poshta terminals. On 18 July, the Financial Times' Kyiv correspondent Christopher Miller, citing a senior Ukrainian official, said that the attacks on Wildberries were retaliation for the strikes on Nova Poshta.
"It has been a terrible night, with terrible events for our company and our country. It is a pain that cannot be described in words. There are simply no words to express the feelings and emotions caused by attacks on ordinary people, on our employees, on all of us who are simply doing our jobs," Wildberries owner Tatyana Kim wrote after the second attack.
However, her claim that the attacks are targeting ordinary people with no connection to the war is a blatant manipulation. In reality, the warehouses in Moscow and Tambov oblasts were used to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment, Zelenskyy stressed.
The logistics centres in Krasnodar Krai and Stavropol Krai were also involved in supplying the Russian military with drone components, navigation equipment and military gear, the president said.
Wildberries openly sells goods used in the war, including body armour, camouflage uniforms and fibre-optic cable for drones.
Although many Russians have reacted angrily on social media, claiming the strikes targeted "civilian sites" as if Russia itself does not strike residential buildings in Ukrainian cities every day, experts agree that Wildberries warehouses are legitimate military targets. Among the goods destroyed in the fires were numerous military-use items purchased independently by Russian servicemen and their family members.
Serhii Kuzan, head of the Ukrainian Centre for Security and Cooperation, described Wildberries as "a vital component" of Russia's logistics network.
"The rationale for striking Wildberries warehouses is to disrupt Russian logistics and the supply of dual-use goods, critical electronics and sanctioned products to the Russian military and defence manufacturers," he explained.
According to Kuzan, such strikes could have a significant impact on the Russian economy while also producing a psychological effect on Russian society and its support for the war.
Wildberries launched operations in Ukraine in autumn 2020 but immediately came under criticism. T-shirts bearing Vladimir Putin's portrait, as well as clothing displaying Russian police and Airborne Forces (also known as VDV) insignia, were found on its website, prompting Ukraine's Ministry of Culture to propose sanctions. Restrictions against the marketplace and its founders were introduced in 2021.
In 2026, WB Bank, which is controlled by the company, was sanctioned by both the UK and the European Union. "The sanctions target financial networks that help circumvent Western sanctions and support military procurement," the UK government said.
The marketplace also has close ties to the Kremlin. In the summer of 2024, Wildberries merged with the outdoor advertising operator Russ. The merger received Vladimir Putin's personal approval, with the stated aim of creating a global competitor to Amazon, Alibaba and Google.
Moreover, the divorce of co-founders Vladislav Bakalchuk (who held a 1% stake) and Tatyana Kim (99%), along with the corporate conflict between them, escalated into a battle for control of the business, complete with shoot-outs in Moscow between two Putin-aligned clans – Chechen and Dagestani.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the Head of Chechnya, who had defended Bokalchuk's interests and his own concealed investments in the company, has lost. Control passed to Dagestani senator Suleiman Kerimov, who has repeatedly been described as one of Putin's "wallets".
The Kremlin leader praised the marketplace, while Kim publicly thanked him "for his high praise of Wildberries' work".
Losses from the strikes
According to initial estimates, losses incurred by Wildberries and its sellers after the first strikes exceeded RUB 100 billion (US$1.28 billion). Up to 15% of the company's warehouse facilities may have been affected.
Under revised estimates, repairing the warehouses after the initial attacks could cost Wildberries RUB 22-36 billion (up to US$400 million). The total value of goods lost by sellers is estimated at RUB 150-235 billion (up to US$2.5 billion). Following the strikes on 22 July, this figure is likely to increase by a further RUB 100-120 billion (up to US$1.5 billion).
Formally, however, Wildberries is not obliged to compensate sellers for these losses. From 7 July, apparently in preparation for such a scenario, the company amended its terms of cooperation. Under the new rules, the marketplace is exempt from liability for goods damaged as a result of "force majeure". This category includes not only drone attacks but also any destruction caused by any type of weaponry or military equipment.
After the first attack, Kim wrote that the company was nevertheless "working out the amounts of compensation for sellers and other financial support measures". However, Russian social media was flooded with posts along the lines of "What did we do to deserve this?" and fears of not receiving the promised compensation.
"Another illusion has disappeared – that someone will protect entrepreneurs. The risks are being shifted onto us. The losses are becoming ours too. It will only get worse," – Russian social media is rife with posts like this .
On 22 July, Wildberries did eventually promise to compensate sellers for the value of goods that had been destroyed by fire. However, it did not specify how the payments would be calculated or when the money would be paid, merely stating that this would happen "as soon as possible".
Loans, Rosneft and a beautiful fairy tale: how Wildberries became the 'Russian Amazon'
"Autumn 2004. Rain. Tatyana Bakalchuk, an English teacher, travels across the whole of Moscow by public transport – metro, bus, ten minutes on foot – to collect yet another 20-kilogram parcel of clothing." This is how the first detailed feature on Wildberries in Russian Forbes began in 2012. At that time, the online store had already been operating for nine years and had just overtaken Ozon.ru, Russia's oldest online retailer, in popularity.
Through rare interviews, the marketplace's co-founder promoted a compelling narrative: that she had built the business from scratch without start-up capital, experience, partners or state support, ultimately becoming only the second businesswoman in Russian history to amass a fortune exceeding US$1 billion. In reality, things were quite different.
When Tatyana decided to launch the online store, her husband Vladislav was in fact already a successful businessman, and the Wildberries website – for which, it was claimed, there was barely enough funding – was created by his company.
Bakalchuk went into business in the late 1990s, initially trading in computers. In 2002, at the age of 25, he co-founded the internet provider UTech with a partner; within five years it was serving 15,000 clients. They later sold UTech for US$7.5 million.
Launched in 2004, Wildberries initially operated simply as an online clothing store rather than a marketplace, purchasing garments in the EU at wholesale clearance sales.
By her own account, Tatyana distinguished herself from her numerous competitors by introducing a single markup of 10% for customers across the country (other platforms charged 15% to Moscow residents and up to 30% to those in other regions) and by not requiring prepayment. She maintained that this proved sufficient for Wildberries to "expand and develop ever more rapidly".
Around the same time, Bakalchuk met a new business partner, Sergei Anufriyev, an employee of the Universal Gym fitness club. He proposed that they jointly purchase a very large consignment of Adidas goods worth US$1-5 million. The products were listed on Wildberries at half the price charged in the brand's official stores, and sales quickly soared. This enormous consignment took nearly two years to sell, forming the core of the store's product selection which was supplemented by other brands later.
While online clothing retail was still in its infancy, Wildberries gained a competitive advantage over Ozon.ru thanks to rapid delivery and the introduction of pick-up points. Discounts and promotions were also a novelty that quickly appealed to customers.
The company grew rapidly, expanding its product range and entering the Belarus and Kazakhstan markets. By the end of 2014, Wildberries had 2.5 million customers, and its founder's wealth exceeded US$380 million.
By 2017, Wildberries had taken the lead in sales volume among all online and offline retail chains in Russia. At the same time, the company was engaged in frequent disputes with suppliers. One of the key conditions for cooperation with Wildberries was deferred payment for goods. Timely payments were typically reserved for large suppliers and brands, while the interests of smaller sellers were often undermined. By October 2017, partners had filed 22 lawsuits against the company totalling RUB 283 million (US$3.6 million).
Despite the legal battles, the company expanded its discount programme, launched a franchise model and became Russia's market leader in clothing and footwear. Wildberries actively broadened its portfolio – from its own bank and large-scale logistics centres across Russia to supplies of sports equipment via "parallel imports", as well as the acquisition of an airport, transport aggregators, an online pharmacy and online sales of Lada cars.
However, its rise to the status of a "Russian Amazon" would not have been possible without loans and connections to influential families close to Putin. As early as 2006, Wildberries became a client of VTB Bank, and since 2011 it has maintained a credit line with Sberbank. According to estimates by The Bell, in 2019 alone the company borrowed RUB 73.8 billion (US$950 million) from banks.
In addition, Tatyana's sister, Marina Andreyeva (Kim), worked at Wildberries and mentioned her relative Albina Tsoy on her social media accounts. She is the sister of Yuri Tsoy – nephew of Sergei Tsoy, long-time Vice President of Rosneft, who previously headed the press service of former Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov.
Sergei's wife, the singer Anna Kim (stage name Anita Tsoy), is described as a "family friend" of Rosneft head Igor Sechin, a long-standing associate of Putin. Wildberries, of course, denies that the Tsoy family contributed to the company's development.
Oleksii Pavlysh
Translated by Myroslava Zavadska and Yelyzaveta Khodatska
Edited by Susan McDonald