After Wildberries, the e-commerce giant founded by Tatyana Kim and for weeks in the sights of Ukrainian drones, Kiev is expanding its campaign against Russian commercial logistics and also targeting Ozon, its main competitor, for the first time. Vladimir Putin announces responses against Ukraine’s “most sensitive economic sectors”. “They have opened Pandora’s box,” the Russian president said.
Ukrainian attacks on the Russian economy
On the night between 21 and 22 August an attack reached the logistics center in Chapayevsk, in the Samara region, causing a huge fire and forcing the company to suspend activities. Reuters confirms this is the first attack against an Ozon facility. The Chapayevsk hub is one of the largest logistics centers on the Volga: the overall project reaches approximately 135 thousand square meters and at the time of opening Ozon had required investments of approximately 5 billion rubles.
“Today the Ozon logistics center in the Samara region was damaged by a drone attack. Following the attack, a fire broke out in the warehouse,” the company said. “All systems functioned normally and we evacuated over 500 employees in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, there are some injured people. We will provide them with all necessary assistance.” The goods stored in the center have been temporarily removed from the online showcase, part of the orders will be canceled and refunded while new deliveries to the plant have been suspended.
In the same wave of raids, an industrial installation in the Samara region was also hit. Kiev claimed responsibility for an attack on the Novokuibyshevsk refinery. The Russian Defense Ministry claims to have shot down a total of 457 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Putin: “You have opened Pandora’s box”
Speaking to state television journalist Pavel Zarubin on August 22, Vladimir Putin accused Kiev of deliberately shifting the war to economic terrain. “The Kiev regime set itself the goal of damaging our economy. What did it do? It opened this Pandora’s box on its own. Well, then you will receive a response against your most sensitive economic sectors,” the Russian president said.
Putin made explicit reference to logistics: “Do you want to interrupt our logistics? Well, the response actions will not be long in coming”, adding that Russian attacks will be “much more precise and much more destructive”.
The objectives achieved in recent weeks also include infrastructure linked to Ukrainian agricultural exports across the Black Sea. Putin has indicated agriculture, one of the main sources of foreign exchange for Kiev, among the sectors that Moscow considers vulnerable.
From Wildberries to Ozon: 6 billion dollars worth of goods destroyed
At least two dozen Wildberries-related facilities have been hit by drones since July 18, according to a tally reported by Reuters. Estimates from Data Insight, a Russian company specializing in e-commerce, indicate that Wildberries would have lost up to a third of its storage capacity. Goods worth around 480 billion rubles would have been lost in the destroyed or damaged warehouses, just under 6 billion dollars at the exchange rate of recent weeks.
The weight of the two groups in the Russian economy is enormous. In 2025, Wildberries & Russ recorded a turnover of 6.1 trillion rubles, up 49%, with 175 billion in net profit. Ozon instead closed 2025 with 998 billion rubles in revenues, +63%, and a gross volume of goods and services sold of approximately 4.16 trillion rubles. According to Data Insight, in 2025 Wildberries and Ozon together concentrated around 80% of Russian online orders. The overall e-commerce market reached 13.4 trillion rubles.
Kiev: “Warehouses used to supply the army”. The Kremlin denies it
Kiev claims that behind the large commercial hubs there is also a logistical function useful to the Russian armed forces. After the first attacks in July, Volodymyr Zelensky explained that the affected facilities had been used by the attacker to distribute “sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation systems”, as well as other supplies intended for Russian forces.
The Kremlin categorically rejected this reconstruction. When asked if the Wildberries warehouses were used for supplies to the army, spokesman Dmitry Peskov cut it short: “This is not the case”, calling the attacks on the hubs actions on “civilian targets”.
The investigation by the independent Russian newspaper Verstkabased on access to internal data available to sellers between May and early August 2026, identified at least 31,500 products in the categories of protective clothing, drones, quadcopter accessories, weapons accessories, night vision goggles and sights. The overall turnover analyzed reaches 1.646 billion rubles in three months.
An analysis of Meduza documented purchases made via the platform by volunteer networks supplying the military, but found no public evidence of systematic integration of the company into the ministry’s official logistics. A comparable quantity of products intended for military use was also purchased through Ozon.