Saint Petersburg drone strike disrupts Wildberries logistics
A Ukrainian drone attack on Saint Petersburg has forced e-commerce retailer Wildberries to suspend warehouse operations, marking Kyiv's latest strike targeting Russian logistics networks vital to the domestic economy.
Ukrainian drones targeted Saint Petersburg overnight, igniting a major blaze at commercial warehouses and forcing the temporary halt of flights at Pulkovo Airport. Footage from the city showed a vast plume of grey smoke as emergency crews battled the fire. Leningrad Governor Alexander Drozdenko said Russian air defences intercepted 33 drones over the region, while three people sustained injuries in the attack.
The strike directly impacted domestic commerce, with e-commerce company Wildberries confirming that two of its Saint Petersburg warehouses suspended operations. The company released few details about the extent of the damage. However, Russian officials and the retailer noted this was the third overnight attack on Wildberries facilities within a single week.
This repeated targeting of a major retailer points to a calculated effort to degrade Russia's internal supply chains. Last weekend, warehouse sites near Moscow in Elektrostal and in the Tambov region were destroyed, killing eight night-shift workers and injuring dozens. Further fires earlier this week at Wildberries facilities in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk left at least one person dead and around 15 others injured.
Ukraine has termed these sustained strikes "long-range sanctions", arguing that domestic logistics hubs play a crucial role in supplying the military. Kyiv contends these commercial nodes funnel dual-use goods, electronics and components directly to Russia's defence industry. Hitting them is therefore designed to disrupt the internal supply routes that sustain military production.
Moscow firmly rejects this justification, insisting the drones are striking civilian infrastructure that primarily disrupts businesses and ordinary residents. Regardless of the legal classification, the mounting physical damage to commercial facilities underscores the expanding economic footprint of the war.
For markets and businesses operating inside Russia, these attacks represent a new layer of operational risk. As efforts to reach a diplomatic settlement remain deadlocked, the exchange of long-range attacks continues to intensify, signalling prolonged disruptions for the country's logistics networks.
