After months of drone attacks on oil depots and refineries, Kyiv says it is now targeting logistics hubs used by Russians to buy military equipment, and disrupting supplies to the Russian army.

War Spills Into Daily Life for Russian Sellers

But it has also frustrated hundreds of Russian sellers who depend on online marketplaces for their livelihoods, making the war feel closer to home after almost four and a half years.

“I am a mother of a disabled child, I’ve built the business myself,” one woman complained on an expletive-laden social media post that went viral.

“I’ve lost 1m roubles (£9,500; $12,700)… We’re already getting screwed over from every direction as it is.”

Significant Damage to Infrastructure

In Ukraine’s first attack on Wildberries at the weekend, two warehouses were hit, at Elektrostal east of Moscow and in Kotovsk in the Tambov region, some 400km (250 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Seven workers on a nightshift were killed in Kotovsk and one was fatally wounded at Elektrostal. Dozens more were injured and goods worth an estimated at £750m ($1bn) were destroyed.

Kyiv said it had struck “major logistics facilities” used to “supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment.”

Further attacks overnight into Wednesday hit Wildberries logistic hubs at Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk in the Stavropol region.

The company’s owner Tatiana Kim said further casualties had been reported.

“We are, quite justly, bringing the war back home – to Russia,” said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Broader Impact on Economy and Society

Unlike Western retail giant Amazon, which sells goods directly alongside its marketplace business, Wildberries and Ozon act almost entirely as marketplaces, connecting independent sellers with buyers across Russia, storing and delivering their goods and handling payments.

This means many of the losses incurred in the attacks have been borne by businesses.

For one woman, who sells stationery items, Wildberries is the only distribution channel. The day after she delivered her goods to the Elektrostal warehouse near Moscow last Friday, she learned that it had all gone up in flames.

She still has other inventory left, but this time of the year is important for her business, as parents and students stock up for the new autumn term.

Another Wildberries trader who sells teenage clothing, told the BBC she had lost about 1.4m roubles (£13,300) worth of stock. She is halting new supplies for a few weeks.

“The outlook for working with Wildberries is very murky,” she said. “Right now I have enough of a safety cushion to survive the current losses, but if there are more strikes, I probably won’t manage.”

Neither woman expects compensation. Earlier this month, less than two weeks before the attacks, a clause was added to their contracts, including drone attacks in the list of “force majeure events” for which Wildberries is not liable.

Company owner Tatiana Kim has promised “not to abandon” the sellers, and she has offered temporary s and waived shipment fees, but this has done little to calm fears of further attacks.