Ukrainian drone attack reduces Russia's largest online warehouse to rubble

Scale of the destruction

Wildberries, alongside Ozon, is Russia's most important online marketplace. Together with its direct competitor Ozon, the company founded by entrepreneur Tatyana Kim is used by 85 to 90 percent of Russians. Every day, around 20 million orders are placed at Wildberries, and there are more than 90,000 pickup points across the country. The attack therefore strikes a provider that is part of daily life for millions of people.

Small entrepreneurs are suffering heavy losses. As is the case for Sergei, a 40-year-old Belarusian and head of a small business, tens of thousands are currently experiencing the same fate in Russia. Goods belonging to his firm worth 50 million rubles (around 520,000 francs) burned in Elektrostal. Another woman uses her phone to show the huge clouds of smoke in the distance; she says she lost 4,000 fur coats in the fire. "I'm leaving the Wildberries platform and will most likely get out, this is the end," she says. She had driven to the attack site to "say goodbye" to her coats and likely to her entire entrepreneurial life as well.

Small entrepreneurs facing ruin

Student Lera from Moscow no longer wants to use Wildberries, even though she had ordered almost all the furnishings for her apartment through the platform. "They would have scared her: It happened not far from us. So of course it's frightening." Another customer fears that the goods may no longer arrive, or that the platform will simply cease to exist: "Many founders of brands based there simply had millions of items in those warehouses, and a large share of them has burned, if not everything."

Among local residents, the worry is immediately palpable. Anschelika, a 53-year-old woman with short blonde-dyed hair, is still visibly shaken by what she experienced on the night into Sunday. The 83-year-old Anya, sitting in the sun on a bench at the edge of a playground with a friend, has also been deeply unsettled by the attacks. The 65-year-old Yelena, who has just been shopping at the nearby supermarket, says: "Even in wartime, daily life goes on." She used to live in Ukraine herself, she says — it was a flourishing country.

Economic consequences in everyday life

The economic fallout is being felt across the entire country. But already in Elektrostal, around 50 kilometres further east, numerous petrol stations are currently selling only diesel or have closed altogether. Yulia Stepanova, another businesswoman, says: "Almost all of my products have burned; only a very little is left."

Even the Kremlin can no longer ignore the economic consequences of the Ukrainian attacks. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskow had to comment on the situation this week. The situation was indeed difficult, "due to the losses suffered both by the company itself and by small and medium-sized enterprises." The government, Peskow said, is dealing with this matter. Therefore, every attack on the company also affects "every inhabitant of our country."

Political reaction from the Kremlin

Sentiment among the Russian population is strained. In polls, a good 70 percent now support the war. The 79-year-old Lev Gudkov, doyen of independent Russian opinion research and co-founder of the Levada Center, which has been designated a "foreign agent" by the Russian state, sees the attacks as a growing pressure on the Russian war economy.

The immediate consequences for the population range from empty shelves to rising prices. Petrol stations are closing because fuel is running short, supply chains are breaking down because warehouses have been destroyed. Many Russians are wondering how long everyday life can still be maintained. Yelena says defiantly: "We will win and free our people there." The reality at the petrol stations and in the destroyed warehouses tells a different story.

The Ukrainian side has not officially commented on the attack so far. In Russia, anger is growing over the vulnerability of domestic infrastructure, long considered untouchable. The Elektrostal fire shows just how deeply Ukraine is now able to penetrate into the Russian heartland.