Russia’s biggest online shopping platform, Wildberries, has been hit hard by Ukrainian drone attacks on its massive warehouses. One big strike torched a huge logistics hub in Elektrostal, just outside Moscow, with more attacks following on sites in southern Russia. Fires raged, there were casualties, and a ton of goods went up in smoke.
For millions of Russians — especially in places far from regular shops — Wildberries (and its rival Ozon) is basically their go-to for everything from clothes to appliances. These platforms work like giant marketplaces where thousands of small independent sellers store and sell their stuff. Now a bunch of those sellers have lost serious money overnight: one woman selling school supplies saw her whole fresh delivery burn right before the busy back-to-school season, and another lost the equivalent of over £13,000 in teen clothing stock. Many are pausing new shipments because they’re worried about more attacks.
Wildberries’ owner has tried to soften the blow with some discounts and fee waivers, but sellers aren’t expecting full compensation — the company quietly added drone attacks to its “force majeure” list just days before the strikes.
Zelensky openly said Ukraine is bringing the war back to Russia in response to all the Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and warehouses. Meanwhile, these hits are piling onto other problems Russian small businesses are already facing: higher taxes, fuel shortages from earlier strikes on refineries, internet disruptions, and a tough economic climate with inflation and falling oil revenues. It’s another blow to businesses that Putin has called vital for keeping the country going during the war.
In short, the attacks are showing how Ukraine’s long-range drones are starting to bite into everyday Russian life and commerce, not just military targets.
100% support for Ukraine here. They didn’t start it. They can do whatever they want to finish it.
This war won’t end while Putin is alive. Just take him out already
I truly believe Ukraine and Russia has a secret agreement where they can’t kill each other’s president, otherwise what’s taking so long?
EDIT: Since this is getting downvotes fast, I might aswell share the words of Zelenskyy;
We will leave it to the tribunal," he stated.
Yes, and I’m sure Putin is respecting this agreement because he’s such a honorable man.
When was the last time he targeted Mariinskyi (spoiler, 1 year ago, once)? Do tell me what I’m missing. Russia can clearly level the place with everyone inside, yet they don’t.
Putin respects things when he’s afraid. It’s reasonable to assume he’s afraid of what will follow next
You’re missing that Ukrainian intelligence is crashing Russian. Successful attacks on Kerch bridge, smuggling drones inside Russia, multiple successful assassinations of high ranking officials… What did Russia manage to do? Assassinate some opponents in Spain and Poland, assassinate Andriy Parubiy and pay some people to start fires inside Europe. Other that that? Not much. Putin has great security and so does Zelensky. If Russia could assassinate him they would.
Huh? I’m talking about killing Putin. I’m not sure if you meant to reply to someone else, but you’re speaking of war itself, not why Ukraine just doesn’t finally kill Putin or why Russia doesn’t level presidential palace. Reminder that Russia still has plenty of ballistic missiles, drones so many they can easily overwhelm air defenses, etc. They really should not have a problem to strike a building.
I’m not denying that Russia is losing or Ukrainian intelligence is wrecking havoc, that was never the question.
The intelligence is who’s providing security to both Putin and Zelensky. You need to hide their movements and provide good personal security. Putin has great personal security because he’s an ex KGB and expert himself in those things. He barely shows up in public. When he had to take part in the independence day parade he was scared shitless and even used Trump to get Ukraine not to stage any attacks. Ukraine can’t kill him because he’s hiding somewhere in a bunker all the time.
It’s the same with Zelensky. You can see Russia can’t get to any Ukrainian officials, they didn’t manage to assassinate anyone in retaliation for the generals Ukraine killed. They obviously will not be able to kill Zelensky who has the best security in Ukraine. And no, you can’t just drop missile on him. He’s not sitting in his office all day.
Not exactly. It’s been quietly accepted since the Peace of Westphalia treaties in 1648 that just taking out a ruling executive (King/President/etc.) was taboo. Of course, that hasn’t stopped it from happening, but it’s generally agreed that unless you can hold a territory, you don’t shatter its leadership because the ensuing anarchy and/or whatever comes next will bite you in the ass while also resulting in massive death tolls from the ensuing power struggle. If I’m not mistaken it’s actually considered a war crime under Geneva.
Of course, that rule has largely been discarded these days. No one batted an eye over Hussein or Gaddafi and, both the Russians and Ukrainians have reported numerous assassination attempts, some of which might even be real, but it’s still largely considered bad form.
Russia is unwilling to return any Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine as part of any peace proposal and Putin is committed to the military seizure of the remainder of Donetsk Oblast…an objective the Russian MoD has assured Putin that Russian forces can achieve by the end of 2026. Russian forces are extremely unlikely to achieve this objective before the end of 2026, however, and the Russian rate of advance in Ukraine has slowed such that ISW is not prepared to assess that Russian forces can seize all of Donetsk Oblast on any timeline.
Russian officials continue exaggerating Russian battlefield successes to construct a false reality that appears to be shaping Putin’s understanding of the situation and encouraging him to persist in refusing compromise on his demands.
Russia’s militarized internal security force, Rosgvardia, published proposed amendments on July 21 to expand its civil defense regulations to protect Russian society from unspecified “dangers” during mobilization, martial law, and in wartime…The Kremlin appears to be setting conditions to announce formal mobilization and potentially declare martial law in Russia in anticipation of civil unrest as mobilization remains highly unpopular within Russian society.
May Putin go down with the ship
Explosive sanctions seem to be working
It’s a shame about those small business owners getting fucked, but their ruin is Putin’s fault.
Yes. The shit always flows downwards, it’s just a fundamental law of physics. Not much can be done about that unfortunate reality.
But in my fundamental laws of morality, responsibility for the shit always flows upwards, and those are the people I’m going to hold morally responsible.
I have been in favour of Ukraines campaign on Russian oil and gas infrastructure because of its direct impact on military resupply and Russian state ownerships of many companies, despite also affecting civilians as a noticeable side effect. Making them realize the effect their governments actions have might be painful but necessary.
However these attacks to me are a move in a questionable direction. Ukraine should be very very careful on where their target selection is heading.
Ukraine should be very very careful on where their target selection is heading.
Why? What can happen? Russia will attack some civilian infrastructure in retaliation?
Keep in mind that Wildberries was recently integrated into the military logistic scheme, making it a legal target.
Wildberry is part of the military supply chain so…
Certainly there are goods sold via Wildberry that end up being used by the military.
But the western equivalent to me seems that Amazon warehouses are being targeted. And I’m very certain that Amazon Marketplace makes most of its money selling to civilians. Now before anyone shouts “But AWS”: Yep, AWS is a different case.
If the USA invaded Mexico I 100% would assume Amazon warehouses would be targets at some point
Yes, this is like bombing amazon warehouses. We all support Ukraine doing it.
I’m pretty sure the accusation isn’t “sometimes Russian soldiers by some shit”- rather that as a logistical distribution hub, the logistical network itself is being used to move military equipment (as well as source drone components…)
That’s not what being part of the military supply chain means. They are part of the military supply chain. They provide drone parts and navigation equipment to the Russian army.
AFAIK Wildberry provides the logistics to move stuff around. They are not a producer.
Logistics is the single most important aspect in warfare.
I’m not sure what the relevance is. Are you saying that providing logistics to the military is not enough to classify them as part of the supply chain?
The relevance IMHO is that Wildberry is primarily a consumer focused company that turned towards logistic for the military. Targeting them is a step up from going after state owned companies that produce products or profit directly used by the military.
While this doesn’t cross a red line for me, it’s the trajectory this development could take.
Comparing with Amazon is a false equivalence, Amazon has NO significance to the American military for distribution. While Wildberry is actively used as a significant distributor for equipment to the Russian military, especially of privately donated equipment for the Russian troops.
Comparing with Amazon is a false equivalence, Amazon has NO significance to the American military
I am pretty sure that the US hast similar laws but here in Germany in case of war the government can draft civilian logistics companies.
IMHO that doesn’t mean that every logistics company is a valid target, though.
It’s war. You don’t win by constantly questioning if you’re morally at least 2 levels superior to your enemy.
What you - we all - need to remember is who started this war and why.
Nothing “questionable” Ukraine does can take that away: this war shouldn’t even have started in the first place. Unprovoked invasion.
It’s very concerning to me that most arguments I read here boil down to “At least we are not as bad as Russia”. That’s a very slippery slope to head down.
It’s war. They’re doing more than just defending themselves. Because how else will they win? Russia isn’t interested in diplomacy and has gigantic backlands to draw from.
Im repeating myself. Because you’re repeating yourself.
Totally fair as retaliation for Russia taking out postal distribution centers in Ukraine for a while now.
These attacks were opened up for by Russia, it is not Ukraine that is on the slippery slope but Russia.
Also Russia can end this war at any time they want, by simply going home. Ukraine has no such option.“The other side did it too” is not a credible defense. You wouldnt want Ukraine committing war crimes, would you?
This is not a war crime.
No, it is not. But Russia has clearly committed war crimes in Bucha and other places. By OPs logic that would excuse Ukraine committing war crimes as well.
That’s why I used the term “You wouldn’t want”.
No, it is not.
And there’s the end of the discussion. You yourself admitting this isn’t a war crime pretty well undercuts all your slippery slope arguments.
So there can be no discurse about where the trend is going unless we already crossed the red line?
It doesn’t seem to matter that much anymore. International law and war crimes are a suggestion at the moment and nobody is enforcing them.
And that’s reason enough to simply go Wild West?
When you get caught in a Wild West shootout, you don’t stop for discussions about the morality of gun usage.
Yup, i’m with you there, and also quite afraid of how people seem to react to your takes, given that they are quite nuanced. Propaganda of warmongerers, no matter their side, really impacted a lot of people.
Yes actually it is in the case of war. You can’t fight a war where you can’t retaliate on a method of attacks the aggressor uses.
You also completely forget to address that this war is 100% Russia’s, and only they can end it because they are the aggressor.
Also this is justified as military targets, because Wildberry is a HUGE distributor of military equipment. Almost everything donated to the Russian military is distributed through Wildberry warehouses.
Thirdly I don’t really think much counts after Russia has attacked civilian infrastructure since the start of the war, and continue to attack residential buildings on a daily basis.
So kindly think again about your “worries”. It sounds decidedly like Russian propaganda!It’s a dangerous train of thought if not supporting someone unconditionally sounds like propaganda to you. You may kindly think about this as well.
So. not going to be critical of Russia witch is targeting housing, hospitals, schools, and parks?
Strawman argument. The debate is about the latest development in the Ukrainian military.
You don’t even know what a straw man argument is, do you? Not this. This is a ‘Whataboutism’. In this case, I believe it’s an appropriate whataboutism.
You’re saying that the Ukrainians shouldn’t be attacking civilian warehouses when the russians are intentionally bombing homes, hospitals schools and parks.
You’re clearly okay with Russian forces bombing fucking kids, but not okay with Ukranian forces bombing civilian warehouses that may or may not also be part of the military supply chain. Frankly, given how much lying Russia has done in this war (as well as how awful their logistics have been), I’m inclined to not believe them.
So. Ya gonna criticize Russia for bombing kids, or… not?
You are indeed right, it’s a whataboutism not a strawman.
Which also applies to the rest of your comment. In no shape or form does my initial comment reference or let alone excuse Russias actions.
If you were sincerly interested in my thoughts on the matter you would search my comment history with the keyword Ukraine instead of accusing me of things I never said or did.
I’m accusing you of not saying.
Ukraine is saying that they’re legitimate military targets as they’re being used in military logistics, specifically in supplying parts for drones.
the drones that are bombing children in hospitals and schools.
I’m not inclined to believe the party that has been lying about everything this entire time. Are you?
Yeah, I didn’t say it. So what? Neither did I condemn the genocide in Pallestine or the US attacks on Iran. That was never part of the debate until you people started accusing me via dishonest discussion tricks and II simply refuse to play along.
Punching people is bad but if someone is punching you you have to fight back, right? This is what that is. It’s not a war crime, it’s a perfectly legal in war military logistical target.
Where is @[email protected] saying that they are not critical of Russia’s actions? If Russia is targeting children does that mean Ukraine is now free to do so as well?
how many children died in the widlberry warehouse attacks? how many were intentional?
Ukraine is saying that the warehouses are legitimate targets, being part of the russian military’s logistical supply chain. In what world would you accept a school as a legitimate target? Or a hospital?
maybe Ukraine is lying. I personally er on the side of the victims in this war, not on the side of the aggressors. The war can end whenever russia chooses to go home. Ukraine is fighting for survival.
To continue on your train of thought, how many Ukrainian children should die to save the life of a Russian child?
Russian parents can decide to end the war today. Ukrainian parents cannot.
How is a parent in bumfuck nowhere, Russia, supposed to do that, exactly?
I am as pro-Russian-exit as probably most here, but that is a delusional proposition. That’s like saying you were an office clerk in Wyoming, and could end the Iran attacks anytime. You and the Russian rando have pretty much the same leverage in my books.
This is completely false though.
Out of the three of us, the Russian rando is the only one that can realistically influence the Russian state unless you and I are willing to put our boots on and plan an invasion. He is part of the Russian polity.
Now Putin may rule through fear, but he still only rules with the consent of the average Russian rando. If enough of them decide that they’re no longer “non-political”, Putin will no longer rule and the war can end. Frankly, that’s the only way this war is going to end. So this is entirely their responsibility.
With that in mind, the question I raised above still stands, how many Ukrainians need to die to avoid hurting or inconveniencing the average Russian rando? Can you answer that?
That’s a simplistic view. Putin has created a climate of fear throughout his reign, and consent plays no part in his power whatsoever.
I’d argue that your view is the simplistic one.
Nobody is responsible except Putin. He’s like Santa Claus, delivering every bullet on the frontline himself in a single night.
