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Wildberries strikes in Russia
Ukrainian drone attacks killed nine people and wounded over 80 across Russia, with Kyiv’s strikes targeting logistics centers and sparking a fire at an oil depot, DW reported citing officials in Moscow.
DW said seven night-shift workers were killed and 25 people were injured when drones struck a warehouse operated by Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, in Kotovsk in the Tambov region, and it added that Russian air defenses shot down 28 drones approaching the region.
A second Wildberries warehouse was hit in Elektrostal, around 50 kilometers east of Moscow, and DW reported that one of those wounded later died from injuries sustained in the attack.
DW also said burning debris from the Elektrostal strike ignited blazes at a maternity hospital and a nearby residential building, and it reported that the fires had been extinguished.
In a separate development, Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region killed at least two people and damaged a foreign-flagged vessel, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram, while four other people were injured.
Zelensky’s retaliation framing
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes hit two “significant logistics facilities” and that they were carried out “in response to Russian strikes on our civilian infrastructure and on our cities and communities,” as DW reported on Telegram.
DW wrote that Zelensky said the facilities were used “to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment,” and it said Ukraine’s military on Saturday reported hitting Russian oil tankers, floating cranes and a tugboat in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
The Washington Post described the weekend’s Wildberries warehouse strikes as part of a wider shift in the war’s air campaign, saying the Saturday night strikes hit two large Wildberries warehouses in Elektrostal near Moscow and Kotovsk in the Tambov region.
The Washington Post also quoted Ruslan Leviev, a military analyst with Conflict Intelligence Team, saying, “We see here this is self-sustaining spiral of vengeance, you hit our shadow tankers, we will hit your dry cargo ships in Odesa.”
In Russia, the Moscow Times reported that Russian analysts estimated the total economic damage caused by the attacks at up to 100 billion rubles, and it said Wildberries’ merchants were likely to be hit hardest after goods stored in the warehouses were destroyed.
Sellers’ losses and compensation
In the aftermath of the Wildberries warehouse strikes, sellers on Russia’s e-commerce platform reported millions of rubles in losses, with the site saying Ukrainian drones struck warehouses in Elektrostal near Moscow and Kotovsk in the Tambov Region.
The source reported that Viktoria, founder of the children’s clothing brand FAREAL, wrote that 12,000 items from a new collection were stored at the warehouse and that preliminary damage was estimated at more than 15 million rubles, while Maria Khlopkina estimated the value of her burned goods at 6 million rubles.
It also said Alexandra Anishkina estimated she kept nearly 40% of her inventory worth more than 1 million rubles at the Elektrostal warehouse, and it reported that she said sellers pay for storage, logistics, commissions, and advertising while the marketplace leaves them to bear the full risk if goods are destroyed.
The Moscow Times reported that Wildberries said it “was already working on the amount of payments to sellers and other financial support measures” despite having “no legal obligation to compensate for lost goods,” and it added that Wildberries said it would provide 2 million rubles in compensation to the families of those killed and 1 million rubles to employees who suffered serious injuries.
The Moscow Times further reported that restoring the damaged facilities is expected to cost up to 35.8 billion rubles, and it said insurance companies were unlikely to fully cover the bill, while it described merchants as small business owners facing wiped-out months of investment.
