Deadly Ukrainian Drone Strikes Kill Three and Devastate Wildberries Warehouse in Russia

Separate Ukrainian drone strikes across Russia resulted in the deaths of at least three people and sparked a massive blaze that completely destroyed a major logistics facility belonging to Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries in the Tambov region.

Tambov Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov stated on Wednesday that the logistics centre, located in Kotovsk about 500 kilometres southeast of Moscow, was entirely ruined by the fire. He had earlier reported that approximately 100,000 square metres of the facility were engulfed in flames. One person sustained injuries in the strike, according to his updates on the Telegram messaging app.

Additional industrial infrastructure in the Nizhny Novgorod region suffered damage from a separate drone attack, local leadership confirmed. Meanwhile, authorities in the Lipetsk region reported that a man and a 14-year-old lost their lives in a fire ignited by falling drone debris, and a woman was killed during a drone strike in the Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Wildberries facilities since mid-July, alongside recent strikes against its primary competitor, Ozon. While Ukraine claims Wildberries is linked to Russia's military supply chain, both Moscow and the company maintain that these logistics sites serve strictly civilian operations.

In response to the aerial assaults, Russia’s Ministry of Defence announced that its air defence systems successfully intercepted and destroyed 426 Ukrainian drones overnight, including units operating above Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.