Why Ukraine is targeting Russia’s ‘Amazon’ Wildberries with major strikes

Ukraine launched a wave of drone strikes deep into Russia this week, hitting a major logistics hub belonging to e-commerce Wildberries in the Ryazan region. Ukrainian drones struck two more warehouses belonging to Russian online retailer Wildberries overnight on Thursday, sparking fires at both sites, the company and a regional official said. Ukraine has attacked about a dozen Wildberries sites since July 18 in a bid to disrupt the operations of the company, a linchpin of the consumer economy that is often described as Russia's answer to Amazon. Kyiv accused the firm of helping to bolster Vladimir Putin’s war machine. According to Data Insight analyst Sergei Semko, goods destroyed by strikes on Wildberries warehouses in Moscow and Tambov regions alone were worth up to an estimated $2.9 bil