(KYIV) – Ukrainian drone strikes targeting logistics centres of Russia’s largest online retailer are threatening to destabilise the Russian banking system. The campaign against Wildberries is a calculated expansion of Ukraine’s economic warfare, aiming to trigger a financial domino effect far beyond the retailer’s destroyed warehouses.
The marketplace controls roughly 45 percent of Russia’s e-commerce sector, with a turnover exceeding 6 trillion roubles ($62.5 billion/£49.2 billion/€57.8 billion) in 2025. Its vast network of logistics hubs, central to its business model, is proving highly vulnerable to attack.
Ukrainian officials state the infrastructure is a legitimate target due to its dual-use nature. The logistics centres are used to transport military supplies and equipment vital for sustaining the Russian war economy. Each successful strike destroys more than goods and buildings; it cripples a transport node, forcing the company into costly rerouting and increasing pressure on remaining facilities.
Russian media have reported that the company, co-owned by Tatyana Kim, is seeking alternative warehouse space in Kazakhstan and has increasingly relied on a logistics complex in Belarus.
The damage extends directly to hundreds of thousands of small-time entrepreneurs. Sellers who store inventory, use logistics services, and rely on credit programmes with the marketplace face ruin and an inability to repay their own debts. Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak highlighted the financial objective in a DW interview, stating that the company’s massive credit portfolio means its losses will directly impact major Russian banks, including Sberbank, VTB, Alfa-Bank and PSB.
“Losses can negatively affect revenues to the Russian budget and create additional social pressure inside the country,” Mr Podolyak said. Denis Shtillerman, co-owner of the Ukrainian defence company Fire Point, offered a similar assessment, stating that weakening the largest marketplaces could multiply problems for the banks that actively lent to the sector.
The company’s debt burden is immense. Russian financial reports indicate short-term loans at the main operating company grew almost eightfold in a year to over 800 billion roubles. Russian media estimate the group’s total debt load at roughly 1.3 trillion roubles ($13.5 billion/£10.6 billion/€12.5 billion), with VTB holding a significant portion.
This fragility was signalled before the strikes. The Bank of Russia had warned that the combined debt of the largest Russian “big tech” firms had grown by more than half over a year to about 2 trillion roubles, with assets growing far slower than borrowing. The regulator specifically noted that rapid marketplace expansion was driven by massive investment in warehouse infrastructure, the very assets now being systematically destroyed.
While the Kremlin claims the situation is under government control, and VTB has declared readiness to offer further credit support to the company, any major state bailout would strain a federal budget already operating with a significant deficit. The sustained strikes on Wildberries mark a distinct escalation, adding the backbone of Russia’s consumer economy to a target list that already includes the oil refining, military industry and transport infrastructure sectors.
The logistics centre of Wildberries and the Lukoil-Volgogradneftepererabotka oil refinery in Volgograd, Volgograd Oblast, were struck by Ukrainian FP-1 drones on the last day of July, according to the Fire Point press service.
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