Fastcompany iconFastcompanyAug 17, 2026 ~1 min source read

How Ukraine is bringing the war home in Russia with drone strikes on this e-commerce staple

The targets weren't oil refineries, maritime hubs or arms plants hit by other Ukrainian strikes, but warehouses that bring the convenience of online shopping across the breadth of Russia. Ukraine's drones have pummeled the giant depots belonging to Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, burning billions of dollars' worth of merchandise and bringing the war home to the broad public.

How Ukraine is bringing the war home in Russia with drone strikes on this e-commerce staple

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The targets weren't oil refineries, maritime hubs or arms plants hit by other Ukrainian strikes, but warehouses that bring the convenience of online shopping across the breadth of Russia.

Ukraine's drones have pummeled the giant depots belonging to Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, burning billions of dollars' worth of merchandise and bringing the war home to the broad public.

The attacks on about 20 Wildberries facilities have underlined Kyiv's ability to strike far and wide inside Russia and posed a new challenge to President Vladimir Putin nearly 4½ years into his full-scale...

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The useful part

The targets weren't oil refineries, maritime hubs or arms plants hit by other Ukrainian strikes, but warehouses that bring the convenience of online shopping across the breadth of Russia. Ukraine's drones have pummeled the giant depots belonging to Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, burning billions of dollars' worth of merchandise and bringing the war home to the broad public. The attacks on about 20 Wildberries facilities have underlined Kyiv's ability to strike far and wide inside Russia and posed a new challenge to President Vladimir Putin nearly 4½ years into his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

How it works

  • They have badly shaken the empire built by Tatyana Kim, the country's richest female entrepreneur, whose fortune has been estimated at $8.1 billion.
  • Hundreds of thousands of individual sellers have lost their merchandise, sending shock waves across Russia's economy.

Details worth keeping

Petersburg, to cities in the south, and eastward to the Ural Mountains. An online giant began in a Moscow apartment Kim, 50, was born i...

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