Another Wildberries Warehouse Goes Up in Flames After Ukrainian Drone Strike in Russia’s Voronezh

On August 11, a Ukrainian drone strike in Russia's Voronezh region targeted logistics facilities belonging to the e-commerce giant Wildberries, causing extensive fires across tens of thousands of square meters. According to Russian officials and the company, at least 15 drones fired at the city of Voronezh and surrounding areas.

The attack resulted in one fatality and two injuries, with the injured being hospitalized. Voronezh Oblast Governor Alexander Gusev reported that two fires broke out at Wildberries warehouses, one consuming 16,000 square meters and the other affecting 20,000 square meters, the latter still under firefighting efforts. Drone debris also damaged vehicles, including three trucks and one passenger car, as per the governor.

Wildberries confirmed the hit to its logistics infrastructure, stating that workers were evacuated per safety protocols. The targeted facility, a distribution hub in the village of Aleksandrovka in Voronezh Oblast’s Novousmansky District, spans 152,900 square meters and can store over 90 million products. Priced at around 11 billion rubles ($120 million) and fully operational since November 2025, the facility bore a cost of approximately 11 billion rubles ($120 million).

The strike adds to a series of Ukrainian assaults on Wildberries' logistics network, with around 20 Wildberries facilities across Russia hit since July 18, according to Verstka. These attacks have led to at least 14 warehouse blazes, damaging a storage area exceeding 1.5 million square meters, representing about 27% of Wildberries' entire warehouse capacity.

The financial repercussions are severe, with market sources estimating Wildberries' direct losses between 100 billion and 200 billion rubles ($1.1 billion-$2.2 billion) and possibly requiring up to 1.3 trillion rubles ($14.4 billion) in additional funding. The attacks have left thousands of independent sellers struggling to recover from inventory destroyed in warehouse fires, with an estimated need for hundreds of billions of rubles in compensation for the destroyed goods.

The Russian state's inability to cover the losses has left many sellers, particularly individual entrepreneurs who are personally liable for business debts, facing potential bankruptcy and seizure of personal assets if they can't repay loans. The Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has proposed altering bankruptcy procedures to protect affected entrepreneurs, and the marketplace has initiated compensation, though payments remain limited, with many receiving less than 10% of the value of goods destroyed or damaged.