In a fresh escalation of drone strikes inside Russian territory, a warehouse belonging to the Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries near Saint Petersburg was targeted by drones on Friday morning, according to local officials and a Agence France-Presse reporter. The facility, located more than 800 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, suffered a large fire and billowing thick smoke over the historical northwestern Russian city.
Impact on Logistics Centers and Infrastructure
Wildberries Chief Executive Officer Tatyana Kim confirmed that the group’s logistical facilities were attacked, specifying that the strikes affected two centers in the Shushary and Utkina Zavod districts of Saint Petersburg and the neighboring Leningrad region, as well as another warehouse in Simferopol in Crimea. Kim stated that company teams managed to save a portion of the inventory and goods, and that employee evacuations were conducted quickly and in an organized manner without detailing further losses.
Saint Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov announced that the city was attacked by drones used for military purposes. In the surrounding Leningrad region, Governor Alexander Drozdenko stated that the attack ignited fires inside a company warehouse, resulted in three injuries, and added that Russian defenses intercepted 59 Ukrainian drones. The Russian Investigative Committee opened an investigation into the attack, treating it as targeting civilian infrastructure, including a logistics center.
For more on this story, see Ukrainian Drone Strikes on Wildberries Warehouses Strain Russian Retail Sector.
Wider Air Defenses and Previous Strikes on Wildberries
Separately, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it shot down 571 Ukrainian drones overnight across roughly 15 Russian regions, in addition to Crimea. Russian authorities frequently limit official acknowledgment of successful incoming strikes, often reporting interception counts or attributing resulting damage to falling debris from downed drones.
This follows our earlier report, Ukraine Drone Campaign Hits 116 Russian Vessels to Disrupt Fuel Logistics.
The strike marks the third hit on facilities belonging to Wildberries—often characterized as the Amazon of Russia.
A previous attack on the night of July 18 to July 19 struck a warehouse in the Tambov region, roughly 480 kilometers southeast of Moscow, killing eight night-shift employees and causing severe building damage. Additional facilities in Moscow were also targeted previously. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asserted that Wildberries was utilized to store and ship components subject to international sanctions intended for military equipment manufacturing, an allegation denied by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Disruptions to Aviation and Broader Context
The drone strike forced Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg to suspend flight operations for several hours before operations resumed around 6:00 a.m. local time (3:00 a.m. GMT). The temporary suspension caused travel schedule disruptions, impacting approximately 50 departing flights.
Read also: Russian Missile Attack on Kyiv Kills Two Following EU Drone Partnership Deal.
This operation forms part of a wider series of expanding Ukrainian drone strikes deep within Russia, which Kyiv maintains are retaliation for daily Moscow attacks against Ukrainian territory. Ukrainian authorities emphasize that their campaign focuses on Russian energy and oil facilities to weaken the economic capabilities funding Moscow’s military efforts. According to an Agence France-Presse compilation of media reports and official data, over 90% of Russian regions have faced fuel supply disruptions—including shortages or rationing—since June, despite Russia remaining one of the world’s leading oil producers.
