Ukrainian drones strike Wildberries hub in Aleksin as campaign hits 20+ warehouses across Russia

Overnight strike on Aleksin hub

A Ukrainian drone crashed into a Wildberries sorting center in Aleksin, Tula region, in the night of 4 to 5 August, starting a large fire. Tula governor Dmitry Milyayev said on Telegram that one person was injured and that emergency services were working on the site. The warehouse covers approximately 194,500 square meters, according to the independent Russian outlet Astra and the Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+, making it one of the company's largest facilities. Video footage showed a massive plume of smoke over the complex. Wildberries confirmed the strike in a separate Telegram post, saying staff had been evacuated and delivery flows redirected.

Milyayev reported that two apartment buildings in the Venev district and two industrial facilities in Novomoskovsk and the Uzlovaya area were also damaged. He said Russian forces intercepted 107 Ukrainian drones in the region overnight. A separate drone attack was reported in Zelenodolsk, Tatarstan, where a fire broke out after debris fell on a civilian building; the Ukrainian channel Supernova+ identified the target as another Wildberries warehouse, which had already been struck on 31 July.

A campaign against the "Russian Amazon"

Since mid-July 2026, Ukraine has systematically targeted Wildberries logistics infrastructure across Russia. By the morning of 5 August, more than 20 of the company's warehouses had been hit, according to Deutsche Welle. The independent portal Agentstno reported that 12 of Wildberries' 15 largest distribution centers had been affected by early August, with seven still not back in operation. The platform holds a 45% share of Russia's e-commerce market, according to Kommersant citing data from the Russian research institute Euler.

The largest single loss was the Elektrostal hub near Moscow, covering 250,000 square meters, which burned to the ground. According to Verstka calculations cited by Digi24, the total area of warehouses attacked exceeds 1.5 million square meters, or 27% of the platform's total storage capacity. Deutsche Welle, citing Agentstno, put the loss at at least 15%, or about 860,000 square meters.

Economic fallout and contract changes

Experts estimate repair costs at nearly 60 billion rubles, close to a third of the company's annual profit. Losses for merchant partners who stored goods in the hit facilities are even higher, estimated at 215 to 300 billion rubles across sources. Wildberries, however, does not intend to bear those costs: in early July the company amended its contracts with sellers to remove liability for consequences of weapons, military equipment, drones, ammunition, shelling and explosions.

President Volodymyr Zelensky justified the strikes by citing the warehouses' role in Russia's military supply chain.

They were used by the aggressor to ensure supplies of sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment.

Wildberries founder Tatiana Kim called the attacks "an act of international terrorism." After the strikes began, Wildberries removed the "Everything for SVO" label from its site, under which more than 200,000 products had been listed, though military-designated goods including body armor remained available, Digi24 reported.

Strikes on both sides

Russian forces attacked Kyiv from the air early on 5 August, killing one person and injuring 24, with severe damage to buildings in several districts of the city of 3 million. The previous day, Ukrainian strikes hit an industrial zone in Chekhov, Moscow region, leaving five dead and about ten wounded, Europa Press reported. Attacks were also reported in Leningrad region (Krasny Bor) and Tver, with no casualties.

Military expert Gustav Gressel told Focus he sees a deliberate campaign against Russia's defense industry behind the warehouse strikes. Ukraine maintains that e-commerce facilities are justified targets because they serve to supply the Russian army at the front.