Ukraine Has Hit Nearly 20 Wildberries Warehouses Since July 18, Targeting Russia's Amazon

Ukraine has spent the last few weeks blowing up Amazon's Russian equivalent, warehouse by warehouse.

Since July 18, Ukrainian drones have struck close to 20 sites belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, according to TIME. The campaign hit at least two more Wildberries warehouses near St. Petersburg in overnight strikes reported this week, part of what Ukraine's Defense Forces called on social media "Russian logistics, dismantled one hub at a time."

By late July, seven of the company's biggest distribution centers had already been destroyed in a single week, according to Forbes, including strikes in Elektrostal outside Moscow, Krasnodar, Stavropol and two hits in St. Petersburg. Russian state-controlled outlet Kommersant estimated as of July 23 that roughly 10% of Wildberries' logistics hubs had been damaged, according to the Kyiv Independent.

Why Ukraine Says It's a Legitimate Target

Wildberries controls almost half of Russia's online retail market, according to the Kyiv Independent. It sells everything from vacuum cleaners to plane tickets and runs its own bank, WB Bank. That puts it well ahead of rival Ozon.

Ukraine's argument is that the platform also functions as a military supply chain. Pavel Luzin, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, told the Kyiv Independent that Russia's official military procurement mostly covers weapons, leaving soldiers to buy their own gear.

"Military units and individual soldiers need to buy a lot of things themselves: uniforms, food, gasoline, electric power generators, drones, cars, motorcycles, spare parts," Luzin said, "that's why it is possible to buy goods necessary for warfare on Wildberries."

The Kyiv Independent reported the site is an intermediary for bulletproof vests and fiber-optic cable used in drones, plus regular consumer goods pro-war volunteer groups use to outfit troops. Under international law, a civilian facility can become a legitimate military target if it makes an effective contribution to military action and precautions are taken to limit civilian harm.

Moscow and Wildberries deny the facilities supply the armed forces, according to TIME. Neither has offered a detailed public rebuttal to the specific dual-use goods claim, based on available reporting.

The Human and Financial Toll

The strikes have killed at least eight civilians and injured dozens more, according to Forbes. Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim, now Russia's wealthiest woman at 50 years old, wrote on Telegram that she had "no words to describe all the feelings and emotions caused by the attacks on ordinary people, on our employees, on us, who are simply doing our jobs."

Kim announced Wildberries would pay 2 million rubles, about $25,500, to the families of each employee killed, and half that for serious injuries. She said insurance doesn't cover drone strikes and that the company faces over $1.3 billion in damages, according to Forbes, while vowing operations would continue by redistributing goods to keep filling roughly 7 million daily orders.

Wildberries employs 48,000 people and generated an estimated $9 billion in revenue in 2024, according to Forbes.

The Financial Angle

Wildberries isn't just a warehouse operator. It's tied into Russia's financial system. In May, the company announced a strategic partnership with VTB Bank, a majority state-owned Russian institution, according to TIME. VTB Bank shares fell around 2.5% on July 28 amid the ongoing strikes, Reuters reported.

The European Union used that connection to justify sanctions. Days after Ukraine's July 18 strikes, the European Commission added WB Bank to its 21st sanctions package. The Council of the European Union declared that "Wildberries Bank LLC is involved in an economic sector providing a substantial source of revenue to the Government of the Russian Federation, which is responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Ukraine."

What's Actually Unresolved

Whether every warehouse Ukraine has hit actually stored military-linked goods, versus purely civilian inventory, hasn't been independently verified in public reporting. Kommersant's 10% damage estimate comes from a Russian state-controlled outlet, which has its own incentive to downplay the scope. Ukraine's own claims about dual-use goods rest on the platform's open marketplace structure rather than any leaked inventory manifest showing specific warehouses hit were stocking military gear.

The legal case for targeting Wildberries depends on the platform's role as an unregulated marketplace for military-adjacent goods. International law experts say this case is plausible but not automatically proven for any individual warehouse. Kyiv hasn't published site-by-site evidence tying each of the nearly 20 struck locations to battlefield supply.

What's certain is the trajectory. Ukraine's military reshuffle in late July put Mykhailo Drapatyi in charge of what Zelensky has called precise defensive efforts, and the campaign against Wildberries has continued rather than let up. VTB's stock dip suggests markets are starting to price in the disruption. Whether Wildberries can keep filling 7 million daily orders as more of its network burns is the next thing to watch.