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Wildberries hit again
Ukrainian drones struck warehouses of Russia’s biggest online retailer, Wildberries, again, injuring eight people and triggering evacuations of employees from logistics centres in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk, the company said on Wednesday morning.
“injuring eight people in the latest attack”
Tatiana Kim, Wildberries’ CEO, said the logistics centres in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk were evacuated after the attack, and local officials described fires after drone debris hit warehouse sites.
The BBC reported that the latest strikes killed one person and injured another 14, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying the hubs were "involved in providing the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment and other gear."
The BBC also said the previous attack on Wildberries warehouses in central Russia, four days earlier, killed eight people, according to Russian officials, and that workers were evacuated after the attacks on logistics centres in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk.
Competing casualty counts
In Krasnodar, local officials said 10 people were injured in an attack on a warehouse complex that caught fire, and the BBC later reported that a young woman died of her injuries in hospital.
Vladimir Vladimirov, the Stavropol governor, said five people were hurt in a warehouse complex on the outskirts of Nevinnomyssk, while BBC Verify confirmed fires in the two locations.
Al Jazeera reported that Vladimir Vladimirov’s counterpart in Stavropol Krai, Vladimir Vladimirov, said on Russia’s state-run Max platform that a warehouse complex had caught fire after a drone attack on the outskirts of Nevinnomyssk and that five people had received medical treatment.
Al Jazeera also quoted Zelenskyy saying Ukrainian forces targeted "important facilities in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions" and added that Kyiv was striking logistics centres supplying the Russian army with drone components and navigation equipment.
Why Ukraine targets logistics
Ukraine’s stated rationale for striking Wildberries’ logistics hubs was tied to supplying the Russian army, with Zelenskyy saying Kyiv had struck "logistics centres involved in supplying the Russian army with components for drones" and other gear.
“logistics centres involved in supplying the Russian army with components for drones”
The BBC quoted Serhii Kuzan, chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre, describing Wildberries as a "vital component" of Russian logistics and saying the "primary rationale" was to disrupt Russian logistics and the supply of dual-use goods.
The BBC also reported that the strikes have angered hundreds of sellers whose livelihoods depend on online marketplaces, including trader Elena, who told BBC Russian that if there are more strikes she "probably won't manage."
In response to the attacks, Wildberries founder and Russia’s wealthiest woman Tatyana Kim said on Wednesday that "There are no words to describe all the feelings and emotions caused by the attacks on ordinary people" and wrote on Telegram that the company must continue doing its work.