‘Up in smoke’: Attacks on ‘Russia’s Amazon’ bring Putin’s war closer to home

By Nathan Hodge, Anna Chernova, CNN

(CNN) — A series of Ukrainian strikes on the warehouses of Russia’s largest online retailer has sent potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in inventory up in flames, sparking an online furor among the country’s embattled small-business owners.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian drones hit Wildberries distribution centers in Elektrostal in the Moscow region and Kotovsk in the Tambov region. A second wave of attacks early Wednesday hit logistics warehouses in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions, while state media in the southwestern Voronezh region also reported that a drone strike forced the closure of a Wildberries warehouse there late Wednesday into Thursday.

The strikes on Wildberries, Russia’s equivalent to e-commerce giant Amazon, have brought Moscow’s war on Ukraine even closer to home by disrupting the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Russians. And they intensify a Ukrainian campaign of economic warfare that has seen wave after wave of long-range drone strikes on refineries that have caused long lines at the pump across Russia.

The attacks have also been deadly. According to regional officials, seven people were killed in Kotovsk and one was killed in Elektrostal. At least one person was killed in the latest strikes in southern Russia, according to the governor of Krasnodar region.

Kyiv has acknowledged carrying out the attacks on Wildberries warehouses – and has said the facilities are legitimate military targets because they supply Russia’s frontline troops in Ukraine. In a statement Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said – without naming Wildberries – that “major logistics facilities were hit” and that those warehouses were being used “to supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment.”

The Russian government denies that Wildberries supplies the Russian military. A search for “military supplies” on the Wildberries website Thursday yielded over 78,000 items, including body armor, first aid kits and rations. The site also offers drone equipment, including FPV goggles and kit that can be used on the battlefield.

The Kremlin did acknowledge the economic damage inflicted by the strikes. In response to questions on Wednesday about potential measures to protect businesses affected by the strike, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of Wildberries, “the situation is indeed difficult given the losses suffered by both the company itself and small and medium-sized businesses.”

The economic impact of the strikes is not yet clear. The Russian edition of Forbes cited preliminary estimates suggesting Wildberries lost up to 9% of its warehouse space and that restoring that capacity might cost the company as much as 33 billion rubles ($421 million). Losses of sellers’ goods, the report said, could run at least to 150 billion rubles ($1.9 billion). The business daily Kommersant estimated the combined drone attacks affected about 10% of the company’s total logistics capacity.

CNN has reached out to Wildberries for comment on the financial impact of the strikes and the allegations that its warehouses supply the Russian military.

Russian entrepreneurs who use Wildberries for distribution have used social media to complain about the strikes and the devastating impact on their businesses.

“About 40% of our business went up in smoke,” said one fashion retailer in a post on Threads.

“Of course, compared to human lives, it is just money. The most important thing is that we and our loved ones are safe and sound. We had never stored such a large volume of products in marketplace (Wildberries) warehouses. However, due to new requirements, we had to urgently move the stock from our own warehouse, repackage it, and ship it to Wildberries.”

Another video that went viral on Ukrainian accounts featured a Russian retailer whose goods were at Wildberries warehouses in Krasnodar and Stavropol regions saying, “I just want this SMO (special military operation) to end.”

Several Russian retailers complained that Wildberries’ terms of service had recently been changed to state that the e-retailer bears no liability for damage resulting from drone attacks.

In an interview posted by the business daily RBC, Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim said her company was discussing the possibility of tax relief and other measures with Russia authorities to aid sellers affected by attacks.

“We spoke with one of the agencies today – specifically, the Federal Tax Service – regarding the potential development of measures to ease the tax burden for affected entrepreneurs,” she said. “This isn’t about canceling taxes entirely, but rather about the possibility of granting deferrals or similar arrangements,” Kim said.

Ukrainian commentators, on the other hand, said the Wildberries complaints don’t explain the bigger picture: Russians, they say, ignore the fact that Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that ultimately led to Ukraine’s campaign of deep strikes on Russia.

Kateryna Bohuslavska – who posts on X as “Kate from Kharkiv” – said, “Yet another flood of videos from Russians weeping over the ‘shock’ and ‘unfairness’ of strikes on a Wildberries warehouse. ​It doesn’t cross their minds how unfair it felt when we were just living our lives, bothering no one, in our own country and our own homes, right up until their missiles started tearing our cities apart on a chilly winter morning.”

Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian social media influencer and former official, said Russians should point the finger of blame at Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Russians found out their country is waging a war. The next step is for them to realize who is responsible for all the damage caused to Russia (Putin),” he wrote on X.

“Wildberries is no longer just an online marketplace for clothing and household goods. The platform sells weapons, body armor, drones, drone components, and fiber-optics used for drones. All of these items are used in the war against Ukraine and help kill Ukrainians. That is why such facilities are legitimate military targets for Ukraine’s Armed Forces.”

Russians are unlikely to direct public rage toward Putin, particularly in a country where dissent is not tolerated and criticism of the military is outlawed. But the Wildberries strikes are bringing home the war for Russians in a new way.

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