In what is becoming a common and everyday occurrence, late at night on 3 August and into the following morning, Ukraine’s military launched a widespread drone attack on Russia.
As with many of the most recent attacks, logistics centers and oil infrastructure sites in several regions of the country were the main targets.
T-84 Tank Ukraine. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
In what appears to be an isolated incident, a Ukrainian drone that appeared to have been off course crashed onto a crowded beach in Arkhipo-Osipovka, near the Russian Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik.
The crash killed at least seven people, including three children.
Krasnodar Krai Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said another 40 people were injured, 17 of whom required hospitalization.
There was no indication at the time of what the drone was targeted to hit or why it crashed onto the beach.
Some of the Ukrainian Telegram channels claimed the drone had not continued onto its intended target due to Russian electronic warfare jamming the signals to satellites or navigation aids.
Also, eyewitnesses were reported by Russian media to have heard gunfire prior to the explosion.
Those reports suggest that Russian air defenses disabled but did not destroy the drone, and that this damage to the unmanned vehicle by that gunfire caused it to crash off-course.
Photos and videos of logistics strikes were posted to Exilenova’s Telegram account by local residents. They appear to show the by-now familiar sight of thick black smoke rising high into the clouds from a fire burning at a Wildberries logistics hub below.
This particular warehouse belonging to the Russian e-commerce giant was in the city of Chekhov in the Moscow Oblast.
This site is located just 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of the Kremlin.
This underscores that even the extensive air defense network that has been placed around the Russian capital is still inadequate protection, as Ukrainian drones were even seen flying over the city ahead of the strike.
Strikes Outside of the Moscow Oblast
Later in the morning of 5 August, smoke was also reported and posted again on Exilenova’s Telegram account as it was rising from another Wildberries warehouse.
This time, it was a site in the community of Krasny Bor, located in the Leningrad Oblast.
This town is approximately 33 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of St. Petersburg, Russia’s Second City and the hometown of President Vladimir Putin.
Leningrad Oblast Governor Alexander Drozdenko later confirmed on Telegram that drones struck an unspecified warehouse in Krasny Bor, and Wildberries’ press service also confirmed that its facility had been hit.
The St. Petersburg region, as well as Moscow, has not been targeted on a daily basis by these drone attacks.
Up until now, the extensive air defense around these two major cities has deterred Ukraine from launching regular attacks against them.
But as Ukraine’s drone designs have become more sophisticated and longer-ranged, they are also increasingly difficult to intercept.
There is increasing evidence that Kyiv’s Drone Army is able to hit targets almost anywhere it wants and with increasing impunity.
That has included striking high-value targets, including oil industry sites in these very important cities that house most of the country’s major institutions.
The War on Wildberries Continues
Aside from the Ukrainian attacks on the Russian oil industry, shipping, and military logistics, the war against dual-use capable infrastructure continues to intensify with Wildberries, usually compared to the giant US online shopping site Amazon, suffering from the same manner of Ukrainian attacks on its installations that have been seen over the past few weeks.
The estimated potential losses to the more than one million Russian business owners who use the Wildberries marketplace to sell their products as a result of this series of attacks are in the range of 215–280 billion roubles or US $2.7–$3.5 billion.
These latest figures were reported by the Russian-language version of Forbes, which referenced analyses produced by Data Insight’s Sergei Semko.
The company’s sensitivity over the costs of these losses has caused Wilkberries to now forbid employees from bringing smartphones to work and restrict them to the use of only basic mobile phones – what the Russians call “zvonilka.” This is a derogatory or casual term for an inexpensive or old-fashioned mobile phone that lacks internet, advanced apps, or other smart features—essentially a device good for little more than making phone calls.
Most importantly, these phones have no cameras that can video the serial destruction of these warehouses.
This change in company policy was reported on 3 August on the Russian Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti, stating that this new policy had been announced in an internal company notice.
Wildberries had listed an extensive range of military equipment on its website, which included drone components and body armor.
The company’s banking arm was also sanctioned by the EU in July when investigations into its major owners – top officials in the Russian Presidential Administration – showed its significant financial contribution to Russia’s state budget.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
