(MOSCOW) – Drone strikes have damaged logistics hubs belonging to Russia’s largest online marketplace for almost a fortnight, with the company’s founder labelling the incidents “terrorist attacks” against civilians.
Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim addressed sellers, customers and the business community in a video statement posted to her Telegram channel on 31 July, following repeated Ukrainian strikes on the firm’s warehouse network. She claimed the targeting of facilities used by hundreds of millions of people across ten countries constituted attacks on ordinary citizens rather than military objectives.
Kim stated that warehouses are equipped with every available protective measure and that defences are being strengthened daily. She noted that the company successfully repels the majority of incoming attacks. At the Yekaterinburg facility alone, where vehicles in the car park ignited, more than two hundred fixed wing drones were deployed.
The company has overhauled its fire safety operations since 2024, establishing dedicated firefighting brigades, installing modern suppression systems and manufacturing its own components. Approximately two thousand personnel work on fire safety daily under a former Emergency Situations Ministry colonel with twenty six years of experience, which Kim said had enabled the containment of blazes and protection of stock where possible.
Kim stated the strikes constitute force majeure and that under Russian law associated losses are not subject to compensation. She cautioned sellers against fraudsters and lawyers exploiting the situation, urging partners to rely solely on official company channels and the state.
The firm has acted as a conduit for small and medium sized business interests, discussing a comprehensive support package with the federal government to be announced in coming days. Two tranches of financial assistance have already been disbursed, with the second covering nearly one hundred thousand businesses. Larger partners have been offered increased loyalty discounts at the company’s expense, repayment holidays at Wildberries Bank and other measures. In person meetings with entrepreneurs in the hardest hit regions are scheduled to begin next week.
Kim said logistics infrastructure is being rebuilt as rapidly as possible by redistributing flows across facilities to maintain delivery speeds. The company holds dozens of offers to lease logistics capacity inside Russia and beyond its borders, with some contracts already signed. Facilities under construction in other countries will come online soon.
The Wildberries founder rejected suggestions that the marketplace sells military goods, noting that Amazon and Alibaba carry identical product ranges. She claimed the enemy had publicly stated the attacks target ordinary citizens with the sole aim of applying pressure, causing panic and destabilising large populations.
The video was shared via Kim’s official Telegram channel.
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