Since July 18th, Ukrainian forces have made a concerted effort to take out much of the physical infrastructure owned by Wildberries, a Russian e-commerce website. The attacks, which have occurred nearly every night, have set much of the company’s warehouse and storage space ablaze. One Reuters evaluation found that over one-fifth of the retailer’s physical storage space has been wiped out or damaged by Ukrainian strikes.
Russia’s Largest Online Retailer
Putin Reading a Statement. Image Credit: Russian Government.
Russia’s President Putin Sitting at a Desk. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Wildberries is much like Amazon, the American online retail giant. According to some estimates, nearly 80 million people, or more than half of Russia’s population, use Wildberries’ services. Though Wildberries’ annual turnover is around ten percent of Amazon’s, within Russia the company plays a vital role, and its prompt deliveries and quick service are widely noted.
The niche Wildberries fills has helped the company’s founder, Tatyana Kim, rightly earn the moniker of Russia’s richest woman. But much of the wealth that she and her ex-husband built is at risk of disappearing.
Wildberries’ ubiquity throughout Russia — a clear and present marker of the company’s success — is why it now finds itself the target of Ukrainian ire. According to Wildberries’ terms of use, certain items of an explicitly military nature, items like firearms, ammunition, explosives, and related deadly equipment and components, cannot be bought or sold on the platform.
However, certain dual-use goods, such as drones, drone components, and related materials, can be purchased and shipped to customers nationwide.
Other items, such as tactical equipment, boots, vests, and other military-related gear, are still for sale on Wildberries, with some promoted by producers as preferred kit for Russian service members.
Intriguingly, a Wildberries rival, Ozon, though smaller, works more closely with the Kremlin but has thus far emerged from the recent attacks unscathed.
Ukraine’s strikes against Wildberries have sent ripples through the Russian economy, hitting everyday consumers the hardest. “Sales have dropped by about 50% over the past month, and that is because there are almost no deliveries,” one Russian who uses the platform to sell goods explained to Reuters. “The last month has been entirely loss-making.”
Long-range Sanctions
The attacks have been a facet of what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calls Kyiv’s “long-range sanctions” regime against the Russian state. While that effort initially focused on Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure, aimed squarely at crimping one of the Kremlin’s largest sources of revenue to keep the Russian war machine running, the campaign’s scope has recently expanded to include Wildberries — a dual-purpose move aimed at the Kremlin and consumers alike.
A Spate of Recent Attacks
On Friday, explosive-laden drones from Ukraine flew over 2,000 kilometers, or about 1,200 miles, from the border with Russia and struck a Wildberries facility in Ekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city in the Ural Mountains. Video of the strikes posted to social media showed Wildberries employees scrambling to flee the facility as security personnel attempted to shoot down the incoming drones with small arms.
Wildberries is a significant player in Russia and, combined with other e-commerce rivals, accounts for nearly 9% of the Russian economy.
The uptick in attacks by Ukrainian drones and missiles against Wildberries warehouses and other storage facilities is partly aimed at shutting down a source of military kit and components used by the Russian military in Ukraine. But given the retailer’s enormous domestic presence in Russia, disrupting its services brings a war initially fought abroad directly into the Russian heartland and erases the semblance of normal peacetime life for millions of Russians.
Those Affected
Many vendors on the Wildberries platform are small business owners who use the website to deliver goods across Russia. Those same vendors have been disproportionately affected by the Ukrainian strikes on Wildberries’ storage and warehouse facilities, with goods quite literally going up in smoke.
Wildberries altered the terms of use for its marketplace mere days before the first Ukrainian drone strikes against the e-commerce giant, a move aimed at insulating the company from losses incurred by natural disasters or terror attacks. But the losses incurred by vendors using the platform have been so severe that Wildberries has made voluntary compensation payments, offered payment deferrals, and provided discounts to around 100,000 vendors.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multi-format journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
