Ukrainian drones are regularly striking warehouses belonging to Wildberries – Russia’s largest online marketplace, often described as its answer to Amazon.
This is the latest front in a campaign that has made the economic costs of the war harder for ordinary Russians to ignore. Earlier this summer, strikes on oil refineries and fuel infrastructure contributed to shortages, rising prices and queues at petrol stations.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has grown used to managing hardship and western sanctions. But as I have previously argued, Russia is increasingly sustaining the war by passing its costs on to households and businesses. The attacks on Wildberries show how directly those costs may now be felt.
Wildberries began in 2004 as an online clothing business run from a Moscow apartment by Tatyana Kim and her then husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk.
A major breakthrough came in 2008, when it introduced a flat delivery charge across Russia. It later added local pickup points with fitting rooms and free returns, reducing the cost and perceived risk of buying clothes online, and attracting customers beyond the largest cities.
By 2016, Wildberries had become Russia’s largest online retailer. Two years later, it was operating as a marketplace, allowing independent producers and retailers to list goods while the company handled warehousing, payments and delivery.
Wildberries says it now reaches more than 79 million users each month through over 90,000 collection points across Russia and a handful of other countries, mainly former Soviet republics. It reports that sellers generated 2.9 trillion roubles (£26 billion) in sales in 2024, 44% more than the previous year.
The platform hosts more than 1 million sellers, over 85% of them small and medium-sized businesses. Together with Ozon and smaller rivals, Russian marketplaces facilitate transactions worth the equivalent of 8.5% of Russia’s GDP and support around 4 million jobs.
The network is particularly important in smaller communities, where conventional shops often offer less choice. Wildberries is therefore more than an online shop: it is commercial and logistical infrastructure connecting businesses with customers across a vast country. Its scale makes its warehouses unusually consequential targets.
Why the warehouses matter
Ukraine says Wildberries’ logistics hubs form part of Russia’s military supply chain. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said the first warehouses targeted distributed navigation systems and components for drone production. The Kremlin and Wildberries deny this allegation.
The bombing campaign began on July 18. By August 5, at least 20 Wildberries warehouses had been attacked across Russia.
SOPA Images Limited
Whatever the stated military rationale, the economic consequences extend far beyond the front line of war. Wildberries relies on large distribution hubs that store and process goods belonging to many sellers. A single strike can destroy stock belonging to thousands of businesses, interrupt deliveries across several regions, and affect customers far from the site that is attacked.
The consequences can be particularly severe for smaller producers and retailers. Many have already paid for manufacturing and transport before their goods reach a warehouse. If that stock is destroyed, they lose both the products and the expected sales income, while still facing wages, taxes, loan repayments and supplier bills.
Wildberries says it has begun making payments to affected sellers and introduced other relief measures. But the amounts vary considerably. One seller told Forbes he had received 41,365 roubles in compensation, amounting to just 5.6% of what was destroyed in the fire.
The method used to calculate such payments remains unclear. The company’s terms classify drone attacks as force majeure (an uncontrollable and unforeseeable event), limiting its liability for destroyed stock.
Because the attacks were beyond the control of both Wildberries and its sellers, affected businesses might have expected the Russian state to share the burden. As of July 28, the government was considering loans, tax relief and subsidies, but no decision had been made. Sellers were therefore uncertain about how much of the loss they would ultimately have to absorb.
Consumers may bear some of the cost too. Sellers seeking to recover their losses could raise prices, while warehouse disruption may cause delayed orders and reduced product availability. Damage to a distant logistics hub can therefore spread through the platform, becoming an economic shock for businesses and households across Russia.
Testing public morale
These disruptions will not automatically weaken support for Putin. Russians may blame Ukraine rather than their own government, while attacks on civilian workplaces could reinforce patriotic sentiment. The losses may also generate solidarity with affected Russian businesses, rather than anger towards the Kremlin.
The greater political risk is cumulative. Fuel shortages, higher prices, disrupted deliveries and losses for small businesses make it harder to maintain the impression that the war can continue without significantly changing everyday life in Russia.
Putin’s economic resilience depends not only on energy revenues and financial reserves, but on the willingness of households and businesses to absorb the costs of war. By targeting a platform embedded in everyday consumption, Ukraine is testing that willingness.
The significance of the Wildberries campaign may therefore lie less in the warehouses destroyed, than in the millions of Russians whose incomes, shopping and sense of normality depend on them.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login