No more Berries in the Wild

Ukrainian drones just hit the soft underbelly of Putin’s war economy

On the night of July 18th, long-range Ukrainian drones hammered two of the largest distribution centers of Wildberries (Russia's top marketplace) in Kotovsk, Tambov region, and Elektrostal near Moscow. The next night brought an even bigger hit. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed over 400 drones were heading for the capital. No matter how many were actually shot down, fires erupted in Koledino near Podolsk – one of the company’s biggest hubs – alongside an oil depot and a nearby industrial park. It looks like two Wildberries warehouses got tagged that night.

At first glance, a warehouse full of clothes and phone cases seems like an odd target for a war usually defined by artillery and missiles. But two strikes on the same company two nights in a row? That’s exactly what Ukraine’s been preparing for all last year.

The Elektrostal complex covered over 17,000 square meters and was considered the second-largest Wildberries center, handling a huge chunk of their 20 million daily orders. Experts estimate that 7% to 15% of that hub is damaged or destroyed. Just from the first night, losses topped 100 billion rubles, counting burnt inventory, broken logistics, and delivery delays. Koledino, hit the next night alongside the oil depot, is even larger, and staff had to be evacuated in a panic due to a massive fire.

Two attacks on one company back-to-back isn’t just a geographic coincidence. It’s a planned campaign, aiming to make the Russian economy, not just the army, pay for the war’s continuation.

The pattern held a third time. On the night of July 21st, drones hit Wildberries logistics centers again, this time in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk. The company said it was evacuating staff, and Russian emergency crews were dispatched to both sites. Nearby, in the industrial zone of Armavir, a fuel depot came under what the city administration called one of the area's largest attacks yet, struck by more than 16 drones.

Delivery to the front in one click

Wildberries masquerades as a normal store, a sort of Russian Amazon. But that isn't the whole truth. Russian troops constantly buy tactical gear, body armor, and drone parts there – everything infantry and UAV operators need daily. Civilian goods and military supplies sit on the same shelves.

A logistics network that carries orders to a soldier just as it does to a teenager isn't a neutral party. It’s dual-use infrastructure, and this year, Ukraine has been methodically destroying that kind of setup: from oil refineries to maritime routes, and now – logistics warehouses.

It’s also about who’s making money. Wildberries’ owners are part of the tight circle of business people whose loyalty helps Putin fund the war and hold onto power. Strikes on these hubs don't just disrupt deliveries; they hit the wallets of the oligarchs supporting the Kremlin.

A bill nobody will pay

The second victim of these strikes isn't the military, but hundreds of thousands of small sellers whose goods burned in the warehouses. Theoretically, they had three ways to protect themselves, but in practice, nothing worked:

• the company quietly updated its rules in July, labeling drone attacks as 'force majeure,' for which it isn't responsible;
• they also wrote into their policies that drone damages aren't covered;
• it’s limited to credit holidays for half a year rather than real money for lost inventory;

Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim is publicly talking about 'processing' compensations. But the contracts say something else, and it’s the fine print, not press statements, that will decide the outcome.

Thousands of small businesses lost their entire working capital in one night, and nobody’s obligated to pay them back. Experts say trust in the marketplace is melting alongside delivery speeds, which crashed after losing a key node.

The rear has become the front

Losses of 100 billion rubles probably won’t collapse the entire Russian economy. But what matters is this: five years into the war, businessmen close to power left critical facilities unprotected, and now they’re just trying to avoid paying the consequences. That tells you a lot.

That’s the logic behind Ukraine’s campaign. Strikes on refineries, ships in the Sea of Azov, and logistics hubs – it’s all one story. Ukraine is methodically taking out everything that feeds the war, no matter where it hides – even behind e-commerce signboards. 

The fires in Koledino and at the oil depots are a reminder that Wildberries is just one item on a long list. The goal is to make the war so expensive and inconvenient that Moscow finally wants to end it.

The logic behind targeting Wildberries specifically is straightforward: these warehouses move dual-use goods, critical electronics, and sanctioned components into Russia's military supply chain, and disrupting that flow disrupts the war effort itself. The collateral damage carries its own weight too, hitting the Russian economy and quietly eroding public morale in ways that could, over time, chip away at support for the war.

For years, the Kremlin claimed the war was far away. But the burnt hub in Elektrostal and delivery delays right into Moscow tell Russians otherwise: the war has come home, and their own government isn't planning to pay for it.