Warehouses belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, were reportedly targeted again in drone attacks on Wednesday, July 22, with several people injured, according to the company’s chief executive and co-founder, Tatiana Kim.
Kim said the company’s logistics centres in the southern Russian cities of Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk came under attack. Employees were evacuated from the facilities, while emergency services responded to the incidents. Video footage circulating online showed thick smoke rising from a Wildberries warehouse in the aftermath of the attack.
The latest strikes came only days after a previous attack on Wildberries facilities that, according to Reuters, killed eight workers, caused fires and disrupted the company’s operations. The repeated attacks have raised concerns about the impact on Russia’s major e-commerce and logistics network.
The reported attacks have been attributed by Russian sources to Ukrainian drones, although Ukraine has not been independently confirmed as responsible for every incident. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said strikes on such logistics facilities were linked to Russia’s war effort, while the Kremlin has denied that Wildberries is involved in supplying military equipment.
Wildberries said it was working with emergency services to deal with the consequences of the latest incidents and that the safety of its employees remained the priority. The full extent of the damage and the impact on the company’s operations were still being assessed.
