(YAROSLAVL REGION, RUSSIA) – Ukrainian strikes have damaged Russian logistics infrastructure and an oil refinery while fuel shortages are again affecting parts of the country, according to material reviewed by Estonian commentator Artur Rehi in a video published on 7 August.
The latest incidents include a 5 August fire at a Wildberries warehouse in Aleksin, Moscow Region, and a 6 August strike affecting the Slavneft oil refinery in Yaroslavl Region. The developments form part of a wider Ukrainian campaign against Russian oil refining and logistics infrastructure during the spring and summer.
Rehi said a map of Wildberries facilities showed that about 22% of the company’s warehouse capacity had been fully destroyed, with additional facilities damaged but still operating. The figures were presented as part of his assessment of the impact of repeated attacks on the company’s distribution network.
The 5 August fire at the Aleksin warehouse was described as the most recent and one of the largest attacks on the company’s facilities. Video presented in the report showed a large section of the warehouse on fire, with extensive smoke visible from a distance.
The report also alleged that Wildberries management had prevented some goods from being removed from warehouses and had begun moving valuable stock from facilities that had not been attacked. It alleged that some of the goods could subsequently be recorded as destroyed if warehouses were hit. These allegations were presented in the video and were not independently established in the supplied material.
The report said rival Russian ecommerce company Ozon had also stopped deliveries to Crimea, illustrating the commercial pressure created by the attacks and the security risks facing major distribution networks. The material presented this as a difficult position for Russian companies operating in occupied Ukrainian territory.
The video also examined fuel shortages in Russia. It said Moscow had sought to ease shortages by importing about 400,000 tonnes of fuel products a month, including supplies from Belarus, Morocco and Kazakhstan. The report argued that some of the imported fuel had been produced from Russian crude oil purchased abroad and then sold back to Russia at higher prices.
A fuel queue shown in the video was described as more than 1 kilometre long. A Krasnodar blogger cited in the report warned that the situation could deteriorate rapidly and urged people with access to petrol to stock up. Rehi said such calls could worsen shortages by encouraging panic buying.
The 6 August strike on the Slavneft refinery in Yaroslavl Region was another major focus. The video said the refinery has annual crude processing capacity of about 15 million tonnes, equivalent to roughly 300,000 barrels per day. Its output includes petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, jet fuel, fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gas and petrochemical feedstocks.
The refinery supplies fuel to central Russia, including the Moscow region, and produces aviation fuel used by civilian and military aviation. Its diesel and aviation fuel production also has importance for Russian military logistics, according to the report.
Yaroslavl Region Governor Mikhail Yevrayev said 88 drones had been shot down during what he described as the largest drone attack on the region. According to the account cited in the video, the governor reported no casualties but said one house caught fire and windows were damaged. The video contrasted those claims with footage showing a large plume of smoke from the refinery area.
The supplied material attributes the frontline and strike footage to social media accounts and other sources shown during the video. It does not provide an official Ukrainian military or intelligence agency attribution for the refinery strike, so no such agency has been added to the report.
Rehi estimated that Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries since April had caused about RUB1.2 trillion in losses, equivalent to roughly US$15.2 billion or £11.4 billion at the reference exchange rates used for this article.
The video also cited Russian state support for the refining sector of about US$2.4 billion in July, equivalent to approximately RUB189 billion or £1.8 billion. It cited US$3.8 billion, or about RUB299 billion and £2.8 billion, in June, and US$4.4 billion, or roughly RUB347 billion and £3.3 billion, in both May and April.
Taken together, the figures cited in the video indicate that Russia has been forced to commit substantial public funds to supporting refinery operations as Ukrainian attacks continue. Rehi argued that money being used to maintain damaged energy infrastructure would otherwise have been available for military spending.
The report presents the refinery strikes, warehouse fires and renewed fuel shortages as interconnected pressures on Russia’s wartime economy, with damage to energy and distribution infrastructure creating additional costs for the state and businesses.
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