Ukraine expands logistics campaign with drone strikes on Russian retailer Ozon

Consecutive strikes hit Ozon logistics hubs

Ukrainian drone attacks struck logistics centres belonging to Ozon, Russia's second-largest e-commerce company, for two consecutive days across central and western regions. On Sunday, a drone strike hit an Ozon distribution facility in the central Orenburg region, starting a fire and forcing the evacuation of more than 300 employees, according to a company statement. That attack followed a drone strike on Saturday against an Ozon warehouse in the neighbouring Samara region, which left several workers injured. Also on Sunday, emergency services and the logistics operator Logistera reported that a drone strike ignited a blaze covering 82,000 square metres at a logistics centre located adjacent to an Ozon facility in the suburbs of Saint Petersburg. These strikes demonstrate an expanding effort to interrupt Ozon's distribution capabilities across distant transport corridors.

Expansion from Wildberries campaign

The strikes on Ozon represent the expansion of a multi-month Ukrainian campaign that previously focused on Wildberries, the country's largest online marketplace. Ukrainian authorities justify targeting these commercial networks by asserting that e-commerce operators supply critical components to the Russian military. Wildberries and Ozon hold a dominant position in the Russian retail economy, drawing frequent comparisons to Amazon for their control over the country's online commerce. On Saturday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence announced on Telegram that its strike units had turned their attention to Ozon after concluding an earlier wave of attacks.

After Ukrainian units hit the 15 largest logistics hubs of Wildberries, it is now Ozon's turn.

The statement confirmed that Ukrainian forces had struck the 15 largest logistics hubs belonging to Wildberries before widening the offensive to target Ozon's network.

Mounting economic damage and air defence gaps

The targeting of commercial freight hubs has inflicted severe financial losses on the Russian logistics sector, with total damages quantified in billions of dollars. Because commercial warehouses are far less defended by air defence systems than military facilities, Ukrainian drones have repeatedly managed to penetrate airspace around these hubs. Several logistics centres have been entirely ravaged by post-strike fires, destroying storage facilities and large quantities of goods. The destruction of these hubs complicates freight operations across multiple regions, disrupting private supply chains that connect Russian industrial bases with retail markets.

State response and political fallout

In response to the mounting destruction across domestic shipping networks, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced state intervention on Wednesday to support affected operators. Putin stated that the Russian government must adopt dedicated measures to rebuild the warehouse infrastructure destroyed in Ukrainian drone strikes, offering explicit backing to Wildberries. Officials in Moscow criticised the aerial campaign, condemning the strikes as attacks against civilian infrastructure. The Russian complaints regarding domestic infrastructure damage follow more than four years of Moscow's large-scale offensive against Ukraine, which has caused tens of thousands of deaths and reduced entire cities to rubble.