Ukrainian Drone Strikes Burn $5.9 Billion in Goods at Russia’s Wildberries Warehouses

Ukrainian drone strikes targeting Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries—which processes 6 trillion rubles ($74 billion) in annual sales across nearly 100,000 pickup points—have wiped out one-third of its total warehouse capacity, according to Data Insight analysts, cited by The New York Times on August 8.

The campaign has disrupted a major supply channel for the Russian military. Before the attacks, the platform was generating roughly $20 million every three months from the direct sale of frontline gear like FPV drones, fiber-optic control cables, and tactical body armor.

However, immediately after the warehouse strikes began in mid-July, orders for military equipment on the marketplace plunged, with sales of drone accessories dropping by 39% and body armor falling by 24%.

Since mid-July, Kyiv has expanded its deep-strike campaign beyond military infrastructure to hit at least 23 Wildberries logistics hubs.

The 480 billion rubles ($5.79 billion) in destroyed merchandise rivals the entire annual budget of Russia’s wealthiest regions, such as Khanty-Mansi Autonomous region (5.7$ billion) or Krasnoyarsk region (6.3$ billion).

The financial loss exceeds Irkutsk region’s annual budget by 1.6 times, Smolensk region’s by four times, and equals up to 17 times the annual budgets of smaller regions like Kalmykia, The Moscow Times reported.

The attacks have eliminated up to one-third of the retail giant’s total warehouse capacity nationwide, according to the publication.

The systematic strikes mark the first time Ukraine has targeted a single private business. Kyiv maintains that Wildberries, which accounts for 10 percent of Russian retail sales, is a legitimate target because it actively supplies Russian forces.

While the platform officially bans weapon sales, an investigation revealed that items such as FPV drones, fiber-optic cables, and tactical gear are openly sold to buyers supporting the invasion, The New York Times noted.

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War in Ukraine

Ukraine’s Drone Strikes on Wildberries Sent Russia’s Military Gear Sales Plunging

Aug 12, 2026 16:43

Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim condemned the strikes and announced emergency efforts to overhaul the company’s logistics network.

However, consumer spending on the platform has plummeted, and independent sellers are losing entire inventories, prompting many to flee to competing platforms as the Russian government scrambles to draft a financial bailout package, according to The New York Times.

Wildberries had also recently reportedly altered geolocation markers on digital maps to shift its logistics hubs onto neighboring properties belonging to rival e-commerce platform Ozon. The alleged attempt does not appear to have stopped Ukraine’s campaign against Wildberries’ infrastructure.

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