Ukrainian drones set Wildberries warehouse ablaze near St. Petersburg in third strike on Russia's e-commerce giant within a week

The attack on St. Petersburg

Ukrainian military drones struck a Wildberries warehouse on the outskirts of St. Petersburg in the early hours of 24 July, setting the building ablaze and injuring three people. Leningrad region governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed the fire and casualties, adding that 59 drones had been shot down over the area. St. Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov said the city "was attacked by unmanned aerial vehicles for military use." Pulkovo airport suspended operations for several hours, resuming around 6 a.m. after roughly 50 departures were disrupted.

St. Petersburg was attacked by unmanned aerial vehicles for military use.

Russia's defence ministry reported that a total of 571 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight across 15 regions and annexed Crimea. Russian officials rarely acknowledge when drones reach their targets, typically citing only the number shot down or attributing fires to falling debris. The Investigative Committee opened a terrorism probe into the strike on "civilian infrastructure sites, including a logistics centre."

Third strike on Wildberries in a week

The 24 July attack is the third time in under a week that Ukrainian forces have targeted Wildberries, a company often called "Russia's Amazon." On the night of 18–19 July, drones hit warehouses in the Tambov and Moscow regions, killing eight night-shift employees and nearly destroying the facilities. A second wave on 21–22 July struck logistics centres in southern Russia, leaving one dead and 15 wounded. Wildberries said two of its St. Petersburg warehouses temporarily halted operations after the latest strike, without specifying the cause.

Why Ukraine is targeting Wildberries

President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Wildberries of storing and shipping sanctioned components used to manufacture military equipment. He described the strikes as a "response to Russian strikes on our civilian infrastructure, our cities and our communities." The campaign also mirrors Russian attacks on Ukraine's postal service Nova Poshta: a 16 July strike on a Nova Poshta facility was followed by a 20 July missile hit on a terminal near Kharkiv that killed four and wounded twenty, according to the UN.

Response to Russian strikes on our civilian infrastructure, our cities and our communities.

Analysts say Ukraine now has the technological reach to hit distant economic targets. Ulrich Bounat, a researcher at Euro Créative, noted that Kyiv has "the technological opportunity, the capabilities" to strike far behind the front line. Orysia Lutsevych of Chatham House added that "such is the nature of a total war, a war of attrition: the economy is mobilised for the war effort, which broadens the target set."

Such is the nature of a total war, a war of attrition: the economy is mobilised for the war effort, which broadens the target set.

Wildberries: a pillar of Russia's economy

Founded in 2004 by Tatiana Kim from her Moscow apartment, Wildberries has grown into Russia's largest e-commerce platform, processing nearly 20 million orders a day across 3 million square metres of warehouse space. Together with rival Ozon, the company accounts for roughly 8.5% of Russian GDP and supports over 4 million people directly or indirectly, according to Reuters. Wildberries alone handles about 52% of online orders in Russia and relies on nearly 800,000 sellers, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises. Kim, born in Grozny to a family of Korean descent and a former English teacher, is now the richest woman in Russia.

Disruption and investigation

Beyond the warehouse fire, the attack forced Pulkovo airport to halt flights for several hours, delaying about 50 departures before operations resumed at 6 a.m. The Russian Investigative Committee said it had opened a case for "terrorist act" targeting civilian infrastructure. Wildberries acknowledged the temporary closure of two facilities but did not link the disruption to the drone strike. The repeated hits on a company so embedded in daily Russian life signal a widening of Ukraine's deep-strike strategy, moving beyond refineries and arms plants to the logistics networks that sustain both the civilian economy and, Kyiv alleges, the war machine.