A Ukrainian drone attack killed one person and injured two others while sparking fires at a Wildberries warehouse in the Voronezh region of Russia.
Ukraine’s expanding deep-strike campaign impacted Russia’s largest online retailer again Thursday, when a drone struck an oil and petrochemical complex in Bashkortostan, sparking a fire at a Wildberries facility, according to reports.
Wildberries, often described as "Russia’s Amazon," said the facility was evacuated and that no goods were being stored there at the time, Reuters reported.
The strike marked the latest in a series of Ukrainian attacks affecting the e-commerce firm's sites across Russia that began July 18, when drones hit centers in Kotovsk and Elektrostal, killing seven and wounding more than 60, according to reports.
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Fire burns at a Wildberries facility in the Voronezh region in Russia (Reuters)
Four days later, drones struck facilities in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk, sparking fires and injuring 15 people.
"We can call it ‘kinetic sanctions enforcement,’ or Ukraine’s adaptation of economic coercion into physical strikes," Kateryna Bondar, senior fellow at the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital.
"Kyiv’s goal is to steadily raise the cost and risk of sustaining Russia’s war economy," the former Ukrainian government adviser said, adding that the economic impact could be significant.
The total losses incurred by Wildberries and its sellers as a result of the attacks have been estimated at 600 billion to 800 billion rubles ($6 billion to $8.5 billion), Ukrainian media outlet Pravda reported.
"With only 5% to 7% of sellers insured, the damage is cascading onto tens of thousands of small businesses and forcing Russia’s logistics sector to reprice wartime risk," Bondar said.
"Roughly 27% of Wildberries warehouse capacity is reportedly out of operation," she added.
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The total losses incurred by Wildberries and its sellers as a result of the attacks have been estimated at RUB 600-800 billion (around US $6-8.5 billion), Ukrainian media reported. (Reuters)
Beyond the financial toll, Bondar said the strikes also carry a significant psychological impact.
