{"id":23200,"date":"2026-07-31T12:53:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/23200\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T12:53:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T12:53:17","slug":"wildberries-russias-amazon-targeted-by-ukraine-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/23200\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildberries: ‘Russia’s Amazon’ targeted by Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> The strikes have sparked huge fires and killed at least nine people (TATYANA MAKEYEVA) <\/p>\n

Ukraine has hit the warehouses of Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries around a dozen times since mid-July, killing at least eight people and knocking out a large chunk of the company’s storage capacity. <\/p>\n

Kyiv accuses the e-commerce giant — which employs tens of thousands of people and is sometimes referred to as “Russia’s Amazon” — of storing drone parts and helping the Russian army. <\/p>\n

Here is what we know about Wildberries and how it became a target for Ukraine, which has intensified its retaliatory strikes on Russia more than four years into the war. <\/p>\n

– Series of attacks – <\/p>\n

Ukraine first targeted Wildberries on July 18, hitting a warehouse near Moscow and another in the Tambov region, south of the capital. <\/p>\n

It has since targeted around a dozen other warehouses across central and western Russia, from the southern Krasnodar region to the city of Sarapul, more than 1,200 kilometres (about 750 miles) from the front line. <\/p>\n

The strikes have sparked huge fires and killed at least eight people, according to officials. <\/p>\n

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the warehouses as “logistics hubs involved in supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment and other gear.” <\/p>\n

Both Wildberries and the Kremlin have rejected this characterisation. <\/p>\n

Since the strikes, the company appears to have removed a search tag from its website linked to Ukraine war paraphernalia. <\/p>\n

– What is Wildberries? – <\/p>\n

Wildberries is Russia’s largest online retailer, accounting for up to 10 percent of the country’s entire retail turnover, according to Russian media. <\/p>\n

The company has tens of thousands of pickup locations across the country — even in remote villages — and sells a dizzying range of products, from medicine to children’s goods. <\/p>\n

Since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, Wildberries has been accused of helping Russians dodge Western sanctions by importing branded goods via third party countries. <\/p>\n

The firm says it processes more than 20 million transactions a day and has played an important role in keeping the Russian economy afloat, with many small and medium-sized businesses relying on it to sell their products. <\/p>\n

Russian businesses had struggled with internet restrictions and tax hikes imposed by the Kremlin, as well as fuel shortages caused by Ukrainian strikes. <\/p>\n

Denys Shtilerman, head of Ukrainian defence firm Fire Point, said the strikes were partly aimed at harming Russia’s economy and hoped it could trigger a financial crisis. <\/p>\n

– Frustration on social media – <\/p>\n

Wildberries has not released estimates for the damage caused by the Ukrainian strikes. <\/p>\n

Strikes on two of its warehouses in southern Russia last week could have caused more than $1.5 billion in damage alone, the Forbes Russia news outlet reported, while other media outlets say the company could have lost up to 10 percent of its storage capacity in total. <\/p>\n

The company says it has paid around $500,000 in compensation to the families of employees killed in the strikes. <\/p>\n

Wildberries has also reimbursed the losses of some small businesses, although many say they are still out of pocket. <\/p>\n

Some sellers reported having to sign clauses waiving their right to compensation in the event of a drone strike on warehouse facilities. <\/p>\n

Viktoria Terekhova, founder of a children’s clothing brand, said in a video on Instagram that she had lost “practically all” her stock and had no way of obtaining compensation. <\/p>\n

“We lost not only the goods but also all the money invested in them… I hope I have the strength, courage, and resilience to get over this,” she said, breaking into tears. <\/p>\n

– ‘Support entrepreneurs’ – <\/p>\n

The Kremlin has acknowledged the government may have to assist Wildberries, but has not yet made a decision on state aid. <\/p>\n

Wildberries CEO Tatiana Kim — who reportedly founded the company out of her apartment in 2004 and is now Russia’s richest woman — has said the company is working on security measures and re-directing goods. <\/p>\n

The multi-billionaire accused Kyiv of attacking “ordinary people”. <\/p>\n

The company has launched a major advertising campaign across Russia in recent days with the tagline: “Support entrepreneurs with an order”. <\/p>\n

bur\/giv <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The strikes have sparked huge fires and killed at least nine people (TATYANA MAKEYEVA) Ukraine has hit the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8072,25,1279,26,319,1965,7199],"class_list":["post-23200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-retaliatory-strikes","tag-russia","tag-southern-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-war","tag-western-russia","tag-wildberries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}