‘Russian Amazon’ hit by more massive Ukrainian strikes

ReutersJuly 22, 2026 — 5:20pmMoscow: Another attack on the warehouses of Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, has injured several people, the head and co-founder of the company has said.The attacks on a company so central to the consumer economy appear to mark a widening of Kyiv’s strategy of using long-range drones to disrupt Russia’s war effort and pressure the Kremlin to make peace.Wildberries head Tatyana Kim said on Wednesday that the warehouses in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk had been attacked. Social media footage, verified by Reuters, showed a huge plume of smoke rising into the air in Krasnodar.Local authorities said one worker had been killed in another southern city, Armavir, when drone debris fell on one of the enterprises.Krasnodar ​regional governor Veniamin Kondratiev said 10 people had been wounded in an attack on a storage complex. Drone debris has damaged two high-rise apartments in Krasnodar, where no one was injured.Authorities said a helicopter would be deployed to tackle the fire at the warehouse in Krasnodar. More than a hundred people have been engaged in efforts to combat the fire.Residents walk among debris following Russia’s missile attack in Kyiv on Sunday.AP Photo/Efrem LukatskyA strike by Ukrainian drones on Saturday killed eight workers, sparked fires and disrupted operations at Wildberries.“There are no words to describe all the feelings and emotions caused by the attacks on ordinary people, on our employees, on all of us who are simply doing our jobs,” Kim said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.Ukraine has not commented on recent attacks.Wildberries started as an online shop reselling apparel from European catalogues. It has since expanded its product range and evolved into a marketplace that includes third-party vendors.Wildberries has not commented on the scale of the damage.Ukraine has stepped up strikes on Russia’s infrastructure, including oil refineries, described by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “long-range sanctions”.XOnline sales across Russia rose 28 per cent in 2025 to 11.5 trillion roubles ($210 billion), according to the Association of Internet Trade Companies. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said sales of goods and services on digital platforms equated to about 8.5 per cent of GDP.In a separate development, Russia is no longer willing to return some occupied territories to Ukraine as part of any deal to end the war and plans to retain them as buffer zones, according to people close to the Kremlin.Russian President Vladimir Putin remains committed to taking full control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region by force and would now retain areas of Sumy and Kharkiv regions near the border with Russia as buffer zones, three people said, asking not to be identified discussing sensitive issues.Putin had abandoned territorial concessions because Russia viewed increasingly confrontational statements from the US as evidence that informal understandings reached at his Alaska summit with US President Donald Trump had collapsed, the people said.While the US insists no deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine was reached at the summit last August, Kremlin officials have repeatedly asserted that a package of undertakings existed under a so-called “spirit of Anchorage” agreement between Putin and Trump.They included pressing Ukraine to surrender territory in its eastern Donetsk region in return for Russia handing back occupied areas of the northern Sumy and north-eastern Kharkiv regions.The Kremlin has hardened its position amid escalating Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russia, including on Moscow, that have damaged oil refineries and sparked a nationwide fuel shortage. Trump also backed a new sanctions bill championed by the late senator Lindsey Graham that would target the top five purchasers of Russian oil and gas with tariff rates of as much as 100 per cent.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn’t respond to a request for comment.Reuters, BloombergFrom our partners