Ukraine's long-range drones have a new war target: Russia's version of the Amazon warehouse

Ukraine has been targeting e-commerce warehouses in major Russian cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg. AFP via Getty Images Ukrainian strike drones flying hundreds of miles into Russian territory have been hitting oil refineries, military sites — and now the country's biggest e-commerce warehouses.At least 10 facilities run by Russia's largest online retail firm, Wildberries, have been struck by long-range drones in the last two weeks.The fixed-wing drones have been hammering the retail giant's facilities in the Moscow region, St. Petersburg, annexed Crimea, and other regions since July 18, causing major fires and killing at least nine people.Kyiv's strike campaign has been widely seen as an effort to pressure the Russian economy by kneecapping one of the country's largest marketplaces. Wildberries' parent group, RWB, reported about $73 billion in gross merchandise value last year.The firm is estimated to have lost over 9% of its warehouse space from July's attacks alone. Like Amazon, it operates an online platform that allows merchants to list their goods for sale and use its warehouses to store their inventory before delivery.That means the goods destroyed in the strikes belong mostly to individual business owners. Wildberries merchants also sell tactical gear, dual-use goods, and drone components, which Ukraine has cited as a reason for targeting the firm. Wildberries isn't the only online marketplace in Russia. Ozon, its biggest competitor, also sells military gear but has yet to be a major target. Alexander NEMENOV / AFP via Getty Images Russia is already starting to feel the strain. State-controlled bank Sberbank said on Wednesday that roughly 300 companies that took out loans were requesting payment delays or changes to their terms since the attacks. Sberbank added that it may have to raise its reserves to cover loan defaults. The bank's chief financial officer, Taras Skvortsov, said no decision had been taken yet, but he offered an upbeat outlook, saying the retail market "will cope with this situation and emerge from it with their heads held high."Billions in losses as attacks continueMeanwhile, Wildberries changed its compensation policy on July 7 to include drone and missile strikes as force majeure events, which exempt the company from liability for the loss of a merchant's goods.Forbes Russia estimated on July 21 that two Ukrainian attacks had cost merchants at least $1.87 billion in merchandise. Major drone strikes have since hit eight more warehouses.Wildberries was launched in 2004 by Tatyana Kim, a teacher who started the website out of an apartment in Moscow.Her firm has skyrocketed to prominence in recent years and now accounts for over half of all online orders in Russia. Kim is listed by Bloomberg as Russia's wealthiest self-made woman, with an estimated net worth of $8.1 billion.In 2021, Wildberries bought over a small regional bank to help service payments and loans for its merchants and customers. Tatyana Kim is the billionaire founder of Wildberries. Contributor/Getty Images Kim told Russian media that Wildberries would compensate some merchants who lost their goods during the strikes, though she did not reveal the extent. Should the attacks continue, covering full losses would likely be too much for Wildberries to bear; the firm's parent group posted a net profit of $2.1 billion in 2025.Wildberries did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.'Everything for the SVO'Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, hasn't specifically named Wildberries, but confirmed that Kyiv has been involved in strikes on Russian warehouses."The aggressor used them to supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment," Zelenskyy said on July 18 of the first two warehouses hit.The Kremlin has denied that Wildberries handles supplies for the Russian military, with its spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, accusing Ukraine of attacking "civilian targets."However, Wildberries has carried listings for gear such as drone flight-control goggles, tactical vests with body armor plates, and field rations under a search tag titled "Everything for the SVO," referring to the special military operation, or Russia's term for the Ukraine war.Earlier this week, the tag was removed from the Wildberries marketplace website.It's not immediately clear which uncrewed systems Ukraine used to hit the warehouses. Fire Point, which makes one of the most commonly used long-range strike drones, said its FP-1 propeller-driven drone was used in at least one attack in Ryazan.Ukraine has repeatedly said it hopes its long-range strikes will suppress Russian revenue and disrupt the economy, creating internal pressure that could erode Moscow's ability to continue the war. Read next Matthew is a senior reporter at Business Insider's Singapore bureau, primarily covering defense and how the war in Ukraine is rapidly changing battle technology and tactics.He joined the team in June 2021, previously focusing on internet crime and labor, examining how these issues impact modern society in Asia, with a particular emphasis on China.In 2024, he won the Singapore Press Club's Young Journalist of the Year Award. His work from 2023 also won a silver award from the North American Travel Journalists Association and accolades from Longreads.Matthew's previous work has been featured in the South China Morning Post, as well as Singaporean news companies TODAY and The Business Times.As a student, Matthew's coverage of migrant workers' nutrition in Singapore during the COVID pandemic won the SOAP Story of the Month award and the Student Category prize in the International Labor Organization's 2021 Global Media Competition on Labour Migration.Selected features:Death on the Savage Mountain: What really happened on K2, and why 100 climbers stepped over a dying man on their way to the summitThe nuclear weapons era is making a comeback, and experts say we're all not paying attentionHow nets from a Danish fishing village found their way into Ukraine's modern warInside Ukraine's race to crank out unjammable, fiber-optic drones that can break through Russia's electronic warfareFinding Dora Ukraine War Online retail