Ukraine’s pivot to warehouse strikes brings war closer to ordinary Russians

The aftermath of a Ukrainian drone strike on a Wildberries warehouse in St Petersburg on Friday. Ukrainian drones have hit at least nine Wildberries warehouses on four of the past seven days. Photograph: AP View image in fullscreen The aftermath of a Ukrainian drone strike on a Wildberries warehouse in St Petersburg on Friday. Ukrainian drones have hit at least nine Wildberries warehouses on four of the past seven days. Photograph: AP Ukraine’s pivot to warehouse strikes brings war closer to ordinary Russians Kyiv’s attacks on Wildberries, country’s answer to Amazon, destroy goods made, sold, and bought by everyday Russians Standing in front of a vast warehouse engulfed in flames outside Moscow, Tatyana Mikhailova watched as her entire stock of 4,000 fur coats, bought months in advance for the winter season, burned. “It’s not just a warehouse that’s burning,” Mikhailova said in a video she shared on Instagram. “It’s the time you’ve invested, the immense stress you’ve endured, your money, and your last bit of hope. All I feel is emptiness.” Mikhailova is one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Russian entrepreneurs whose small businesses have been devastated by a wave of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest e-commerce company and the country’s answer to Amazon. Ukrainian drones have hit at least nine Wildberries warehouses on four of the past seven days, striking logistics centres from southern Russia to the outskirts of St Petersburg, killing at least nine people and destroying inventory worth billions of dollars. The attacks are a new phase in Ukraine’s long-range strike campaign. After months of targeting oil refineries and fuel infrastructure, contributing to shortages across Russia, Kyiv is turning its attention to logistics networks in an attempt to erode the sense of normality that has insulated many urban Russians from the realities of the war. On Friday morning a warehouse in Shushary, a suburb of St Petersburg, caught fire after a drone strike, according to videos and local media, sending thick smoke across Russia’s second city. Together, the targeted sites cover about 552,000 sq metres – roughly one tenth of Wildberries’ total warehouse capacity, according to calculations by the Kommersant business newspaper. Losses at Wildberries have reached an estimated 170bn roubles (about $2.2bn or £1.65bn) in destroyed merchandise alone, according to Data Insight, a Moscow-based research firm. View image in fullscreen A Wildberries collection point in Moscow. The platform is particularly popular among lower-income Russians and its vast network of collection points extends into small towns and villages. Photograph: Anastasia Barashkova/Reuters Most of the losses fall not on Wildberries itself but on the independent merchants whose stock was stored in the warehouses. Many vendors this week express their anger on social media that their inventories had been torched. Maria, who handmakes postcards, los