Wildberries and sellers’ combined losses from Ukrainian drone attacks estimated at hundreds of billions of rubles

Rebuilding Wildberries’ warehouses and other infrastructure destroyed in Ukrainian drone attacks could cost the online retailer between 147 billion and 223 billion rubles, Sergei Semko, lead analyst at the Data Insight research agency, told Forbes Russia. If the retailer has to fully demolish the damaged buildings, clear the debris, and reclaim the land, the cost could climb to between 169 billion and 278.9 billion rubles, he said.

Semko put sellers’ potential losses on Wildberries at 445-507.8 billion rubles.

Combined, the damage to Wildberries and its sellers could currently total 600-800 billion rubles, by his estimate.

Margarita Evstigneeva, head of the Association of Suppliers of Goods for Trading on Electronic Platforms, said the attacks on Wildberries’ warehouses have affected more than 400,000 sellers, whose total losses — including lost profit — amount to 600-700 billion rubles, against production costs of 200 billion to 300 billion rubles for the goods themselves. Many sellers, she said, lost up to 95% of their entire inventory in the fires.

Ukraine has regularly struck logistics centers belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace, since mid-July. According to The Bell’s estimate as of August 5, Wildberries’ direct losses from Ukrainian attacks could exceed 100 billion rubles. Sellers’ own losses were estimated at 215-280 billion rubles in early August.

The Bank of Russia has recommended that banks support small and medium-sized businesses affected by the drone attacks. In late July, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak instructed the Economic Development Ministry, the Finance Ministry, and the Federal Tax Service, together with the Central Bank and the business community, to develop support measures for entrepreneurs affected by the attacks on Wildberries.