Ukraine again hits warehouses of Russia's top online retailer

MOSCOW — Ukraine has attacked again warehouses belonging to Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries, injuring 15 people, officials said on Wednesday.The attacks on a company so central to the consumer economy appear to mark a widening of Kyiv’s strategy of using long-range drones to disrupt ​Russia’s war effort and pressure the Kremlin to make peace.Logistics hubs belonging to Wildberries in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions were impacted by overnight attacks, leading to workers evacuated, said Tatyana Kim, head and co-founder ofWildberries. Social media footage showed a huge plume of smoke rising into the air in ​Krasnodar.It is the second time Ukraine has attacked the firm’s facilities in four days, with warehouses in Tambov and Elektrostal hit on Saturday, killing eight and injuring 62.Kyiv has claimed the warehouses have been used to supply components to make Russia’s drones and navigation equipment.”There are no words to describe all the feelings and emotions caused by the attacks on ordinary people, on our employees, on us, who are simply doing our jobs,” Tatyana Kim wrote on Telegram. “But these situations demonstrate the most important thing: we must continue to do what we do for the benefit of people.”Five people were hurt in a warehouse complex on the outskirts of Nevinnomyssk, Governor Vladimir Vladimirov said on Telegram. They all received outpatient treatment, he added.Ten people were injured in the attack on a warehouse complex in Krasnodar, with three in a serious condition, the region’s governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.Kondratyev said the region was hit by a “massive attack last night”, with strikes on a company in the city of Armavir also killing one employee. The city administration reported that an oil depot was struck by unmaned aerial vehicles, causing a fire.Drone fragments also struck two apartment buildings in Krasnodar and two private homes in the village of Dinskaya, the governor said. There were no injuries.Ukraine has not yet confirmed or posted details about the new drone attacks.Serhii Kuzan, chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, has previously told BBC that Wildberries’ website had been used by Russian volunteers to buy military equipment.”The primary rationale for striking Wildberries’ warehouses is to disrupt Russian logistics and the supply of dual-use goods, critical electronics, sanctioned goods and the like to the Russian army and Russian arms manufacturers,” he said.”The collateral damage from such strikes could also have a serious impact on the Russian economy, as well as a psychological effect on Russian society and, likely, on continued support for the war.”