After inflicting significant damage on Russia's traditional economic backbone—the oil industry—Ukraine's armed forces have set their sights on one of the country's most modern and rapidly growing sectors: online retail. In recent years, e-commerce has expanded dramatically, contributing to Russia's GDP on par with agriculture, oil refining, and metallurgy. The strikes on major warehouse complexes in July 2026 mark a new phase in the conflict, targeting civilian logistics infrastructure that has become a strategic vulnerability.
Russian retailers, particularly marketplaces like Wildberries and Ozon, have built vast networks of storage and distribution centers. Wildberries alone operates over 5.2 million square meters of storage space, while Ozon has more than 5 million square meters. Traditional retail chains lag far behind, with X5 and Magnit each managing about 2 million square meters. These marketplaces aim to cover the entire country with a dense network of pickup points and warehouses, as fast sorting and connectivity are critical for delivery speed and inventory turnover.
In 2025, Wildberries opened or began constructing 17 warehouse complexes across major cities including Volgograd, Samara, Voronezh, Novosibirsk, and Saratov, with plans for nine more locations plus the Moscow region. This abundance of facilities creates both resilience and vulnerability. A seller on these platforms explained to Novaya-Europe that having more warehouses makes it easier to redistribute goods during emergencies, with Ozon particularly benefiting from its many smaller local depots. However, the combined company Wildberries & Russ has already seen an estimated 14% of its storage capacity damaged by bombings, according to calculations by Data Insight and Novaya-Europe, including strikes on July 22 in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions covering about 250,000 square meters.
The first major attacks on modern logistics facilities occurred on July 18–20, 2026, according to an interactive map of strikes on Russia compiled by Novaya-Europe. An industry analyst noted that Russia has over 60 million square meters of quality warehouse real estate, with the two largest marketplaces accounting for one-sixth of that. He said that destroying these facilities would require significant effort and time, and that a single attack is unlikely to cause a logistics collapse or severely impact retail turnover. However, he warned that systematic strikes could seriously complicate Wildberries' operations.
The risk is heightened because Ukrainian forces have become adept at penetrating Russian air defenses and hitting large targets—warehouses ranging from 100,000 to 270,000 square meters. If sellers decide it is too dangerous to store goods at Wildberries terminals, they may refuse to work with the company, leading to serious financial problems. Wildberries has accumulated a massive debt of about 1.3 trillion rubles from building these warehouses. The analyst suggested that if attacks continue, retailers and marketplaces may need to seek state financial assistance.
Military analyst Kirill Mikhailov told Novaya-Europe that setting fire to a warehouse packed with flammable goods is easier than hitting an oil refinery column. He noted that a mass drone attack on the Moscow region on July 18 involved about 400 Ukrainian UAVs, demonstrating the feasibility of such operations. An analyst from the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) added that if Ukraine continues to ramp up drone production, it could simultaneously target oil and gas infrastructure and logistics, eventually hitting most terminals within a 1,500-kilometer range from Ukraine. This range covers industrially developed regions like the Volga area, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, and Perm Krai, while areas farther east remain relatively safe.
The primary goal, according to the CIT analyst, is economic damage. Warehouses are considered «soft targets» that burn well and are likely not protected by dedicated air defense systems, as Russia did not anticipate such attacks. The resulting large plumes of smoke create powerful visual imagery. From a military perspective, these strikes could further stretch Russia's air defense resources, though it remains uncertain whether President Putin will prioritize protecting these civilian facilities. The analyst downplayed the impact on military supply chains, noting that while some drone components and fiber optics are bought via marketplaces, the portion of military supplies going through volunteers or personal purchases is often overestimated.
It is too early to conclude that Ukraine has made civilian logistics a permanent strategic target, but the attacks signal a broadening of the conflict's economic front. The e-commerce sector, which grew rapidly in recent years, now faces unprecedented disruption, with potential long-term consequences for Russia's retail landscape and consumer confidence.