50B rubles in damage, up to 15% of its warehouse space, and a contract clause that shifts the loss onto small vendors: inside Ukraine’s strike on Russia’s online retail giant, Wildberries

Eight people have been killed and more than 50 injured in Ukraine’s strike on Wildberries warehouses in the Moscow region and the Tambov region. Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes hit warehouses holding components used to make drones. At the same time, the fires destroyed thousands, or even tens of thousands, of items belonging to sellers who work through Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer. Very rough, preliminary estimates put the damage at more than 50 billion rubles. Up to 15% of the company’s total warehouse space may have been affected. Meduza looks at what is known about the damaged warehouses and why sellers who work with Wildberries may not receive compensation for their burned goods.

Why did Ukraine strike Wildberries?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky answered that question himself, describing the strikes as retaliation for Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine — most likely a reference to strikes on facilities belonging to Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s private postal service. The most recent such strike took place on July 16. Financial Times journalist Christopher Miller also reported, citing a senior Ukrainian official, that the Wildberries strikes were a response to the attacks on Nova Poshta.

Zelensky also said the Wildberries warehouses had contained components for producing drones and navigation equipment. Two major logistics facilities were struck, he said — one in the Moscow region and one in the Tambov region, more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) and about 700 kilometers (435 miles) from the front line, respectively — and both had been used to supply sanctioned components for producing drones and navigation equipment. An oil facility was also struck, he said.

Social media users have pointed out that Wildberries does in fact sell war-related goods, including body armor, combat helmets, camouflage uniforms, and fiber-optic cable for drones.

What is known about the warehouses in Elektrostal and Kotovsk?

The Wildberries warehouse in Elektrostal is the company’s largest logistics center, covering more than 360,000 square meters (3.9 million square feet). In October 2024, company head Tatyana Kim gave an interview to the Russian business daily Vedomosti from that facility, calling it Wildberries’ most technologically advanced logistics center and saying the company was testing driverless transport between warehouse blocks there. Agentstvo, an independent Russian investigative outlet, reported that as of November 2023, more than 8,000 people worked there.

The Kotovsk warehouse opened in late May 2025 and plays an important role in regional logistics. The center can store up to 54 million items. At the opening, Kim said:

Why are sellers whose goods were damaged unlikely to receive compensation?

Kim quickly responded to the attack, expressing condolences to the families of those killed and promising them “all necessary support.” Wildberries also opened an online chat line for relatives of workers at the Kotovsk and Elektrostal warehouses.

Kim did not address whether the marketplace would help sellers whose goods were destroyed in the attack. She said only that goods stored at the affected warehouses had been temporarily removed from sale, and promised more information soon.

In early July, Wildberries added a clause to its seller agreement exempting the company from any liability in the event of a drone attack. The amendment took effect on July 7 — 11 days before Ukraine’s strike on the warehouses.

Update: Kim later published another post on Telegram. She said that although Wildberries is not obligated to compensate sellers for lost goods, the company is already determining the scale of payments to sellers and other forms of financial support. She also said the families of those killed in the attack would receive 2 million rubles, and the seriously injured 1 million.

Entrepreneurs who sell through Wildberries have already begun venting their frustration on social media over their enormous financial losses — and many of them appear unaware that the company will not compensate them.

“I don’t know why this ordeal has been visited upon entrepreneurs… Millions, billions of rubles are burning there. And we don’t know whether they [Wildberries] will pay out that money at all,” said Berdy Begmenov, founder of the men’s clothing brand TM Limited.

“Today it wasn’t just goods that burned. Another illusion burned — that someone would protect entrepreneurs. The rules are changing. The risks are being shifted onto us. The losses are becoming ours too. It’s only going to get worse. Something urgently needs to change, radically. Write in — what does everyone think? 🙏🫂” wrote Natalya Plonke, founder of the cosmetics brand eskin touch.

“Behind these images there aren’t just boxes. There’s money, months of work, sellers’ plans. For many people these are million-ruble losses that may never be compensated…” wrote Yulia Linkevich, a Wildberries seller and creator of the course “How to Start Earning as a Wildberries Manager in 3 Days?”