Russia's biggest online retailer Wildberries is the latest target of Ukraine's attacks

Key Points:

• Ukrainian drone strikes targeted multiple Wildberries warehouses across Russia, causing large fires, killing nine people, and injuring scores, as part of Kyiv’s campaign to disrupt Russia’s wartime economy and affect civilian morale.
• Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer founded in 2004 by Tatyana Kim, operates over 200 facilities and accounts for 52% of Russia’s online orders, supporting hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized sellers nationwide.
• Kyiv claims the warehouses supplied military gear to Russian forces, while the Kremlin denies targeting civilian infrastructure; some Wildberries products are marked as used by Russian troops, blurring civilian and military lines.
• The attacks have severely impacted many small Russian businesses relying on Wildberries for storage and distribution, with estimated losses up to $3 billion and disruptions to about 12% of the company’s warehouse space.
• Experts say the strikes aim less at crippling the economy and more at undermining Russian public morale by bringing the war’s consequences closer to everyday citizens, increasing awareness and prompting more questioning of the Kremlin’s actions.