Ukrainian Drones Destroy Wildberries Depot in Russia Again
A second strike in five weeks burned the Tambov region warehouse to the ground as Ukraine also hit a major Lukoil refinery.
Ukrainian long-range drones struck a major warehouse belonging to Russia's biggest online retailer, Wildberries, for the second time in five weeks, causing a fire that burned it to the ground, local authorities said Wednesday.
The depot in the Tambov region, southeast of Moscow and several hundred miles from the Ukrainian border, was previously hit on July 18, when seven people were killed. That attack marked the start of an aerial campaign that has delivered repeated blows to Wildberries, a company whose size and commercial importance have drawn comparisons to Amazon.
Tambov Gov. Yevgeny Pervyshov said the fire completely destroyed the logistics center and injured two people — a 19-year-old man who suffered a concussion and a 49-year-old woman who broke her finger.
Ukraine says Wildberries sells equipment and technical components used by the Russian military. The strikes have also unsettled Russians far from the front line and pressured the Russian economy.
Ukraine's General Staff said its forces also struck a Lukoil refinery overnight in Kstovo, in Russia's Nizhny Novgorod region. The facility, with an annual processing capacity of about 125 million barrels, was on fire after the attack. Local Gov. Gleb Nikitin confirmed damage to an unspecified "industrial facility."
The barrages prompted President Vladimir Putin to decree Monday that the state can temporarily seize control of critical infrastructure facilities if private owners fail to protect or rebuild them after Ukrainian strikes. Analysts said the move aims to push companies to pay for their own security.
Russia's Defense Ministry said it shot down 426 Ukrainian drones overnight across 15 regions and Crimea. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine struck Russian oil facilities, airfields, logistics and infrastructure over the previous 24 hours.
Russia continued its own strikes on Ukraine. A woman and a 4-year-old child were killed in a Russian strike on a residential building in the Chernihiv region, emergency services said. In Russia's Lipetsk region, two people were killed and two wounded after a drone fell on a house and set it ablaze, the region's governor said.
This article was produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI), in accordance with our editorial policy.
