Why is Ukraine bombing the hell out of Russia’s shopping warehouses?
Ukrainian drones have caused an estimated $6 billion in damages after targeting Wildberries warehouses, the closest thing Russia has to Amazon. Why is this happening – and could it turn the tide of the war?
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What’s the story?
Forget military bases, forget oil refineries – in Ukrainian retaliation against Russia’s ongoing illegal invasion, it is now targeting shopping warehouses.
Those warehouses belong to Wildberries, best described as Russia’s alternative to Amazon, but with a far wider reach, and more important place in the country’s economy and the lives of its people.
Hundreds of Ukrainian drones have fired on Wildberries warehouses since July 2026, destroying several properties (and the stock within) and killing at least four workers.
But the true target of these attacks isn’t Wildberries, or Russia’s economy – it’s the minds of the country’s civilians, and their awareness of Russia’s war.
Nataliya Vasilyeva, a reporter for The New York Times, tells The News Agents that for many Russians, even after four years of conflict with Ukraine, the conflict barely crosses their minds.
“For a lot of people in Russia the war has gone unnoticed,” Vasilyeva tells Jon Sopel.
“Some people may have been affected by their family members going to war or dying.
“But for a lot of people, their consumer patterns – how they spend their days, where they shop – not much has changed.”
The company owns an estimated 95,000 pick-up points across Russia, serving big cities, but also tiny rural communities
“Attacks on Wildberries are bringing the war home, and a lot of Russians are feeling it,” Vasilyeva adds.
“In terms of 'a shock and awe' effect, those attacks have definitely produced one.
“In terms of structural damage to the economy to make it crack, I don't think we're there yet.”
Why Wildberries is so important to Russia
It’s not just that the company, owned by billionaire businesswoman Tatyana Kim, services so much of Russia – it's that many Western companies no longer exist there.
"We saw the likes of IKEA or H&M leaving in protest, saying they didn't want to trade in Russia anymore," Vasilyeva says.
"Wildberries has proven to be a safety mechanism for Russia."
She says it has become its own "ecosystem" since sanctions hit and Putin's illegal war pushed big brands out of the country.
But will Putin understand the impact of targeting Wildberries?
Despite Wildberries now being a key target for Ukraine, the impact of its strikes on Putin will only come through repercussions, as Tatyana Kim, is not part of his oligarch circle.
"Tatyana Kim and her husband built this company from the ground up," says Vasilyeva.
"In recent years, it has become too big to fail, too big to miss, and it essentially became a 'prize' for Kremlin-connected tycoons who wanted a piece of it.
"Two years ago, Kim was forced into a deal where she had to let go of 35% stake in her company, essentially for what we understand as some kind of a protection and preferential treatment at the government level, that would keep her company out of trouble."
But that hasn't protected her company from becoming a key target for Ukraine – and perhaps moreso, the independent businesses who sold their goods through Wildberries, and stored product in the warehouses targeted and bombed.
"There's a dire need of a bailout for small business owners who lost everything in those fires, and the numbers are staggering," Vasilyeva says.
"The physical losses are estimated at $6 billion, and at the time when the Russian government has been ramping up spending on the war, while cutting across the board – federal budget, healthcare, education – it's very hard to see how the Russian government could possibly find even a fraction of that amount."