Drones Attack Yeysk Seaport in Russia’s Krasnodar Region

On Saturday, Aug. 22, drones targeted the seaport in Yeysk, a city located in Russia's Krasnodar region, causing smoke to billow from the facility, according to independent Russian media accounts. The Astra Telegram channel reported the attack, referencing footage captured by eyewitnesses along the Sea of Azov. This footage demonstrated smoke emanating from the port area, a finding later confirmed by an OSINT analyst associated with the channel.

The drone assault came after a prior air raid warning had been issued in Yeysk due to a perceived risk of incoming drones. Likewise, the Supernova+ Telegram channel reported early indications that a ship had caught fire as a result of the port attack. As of now, official Russian sources have not released statements regarding the incident or detailed assessments of potential damage or casualties.

This attack on the Yeysk port aligned with simultaneous strikes on infrastructure in Russia's Samara region, also occurring on Saturday morning. One such incident involved a drone strike at the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery, a facility operated by Rosneft, which possesses a design capacity to produce around 8.8 million tons of oil annually.

Concurrently, rumors circulated on social media concerning an assault on a major fulfillment center operated by the e-commerce giant Ozon, situated in Samara. Visual evidence purportedly captured the moment of impact and subsequently confirmed by reports of an ongoing fire at the 75,000-square-meter site, which is among the largest in Ozon's nationwide network.

Ozon ranks as one of Russia's two largest online marketplaces, along with Wildberries, collectively commanding 77% of all marketplace orders within the country in 2024. The reported strike on Ozon's facility follows a persistent, month-long campaign aimed at disrupting the logistics infrastructure of Wildberries, Ukraine's adversary in this digital domain.

The conflict intensified on July 18 when Ukraine commenced targeting Wildberries' operational centers. In the ensuing month, at least 22 of Wildberries' warehouses were hit, resulting in the loss of approximately 2.395 million square meters of warehouse space, or 43% of the company's total capacity. The most devastating strike transpired on Aug.

16, completely obliterating Wildberries' 230,000-square-meter hub in Koledino (Podolsk), reportedly the company's largest operational center. Industry analysts estimated that the fire at this site caused damages totaling 78 billion rubles ($918 million), representing the loss of goods worth nearly $918 million. As of mid-August, analysts from Data Insight and the Association of Suppliers of Goods for Trading on Electronic Platforms projected that the total value of goods destroyed across all Wildberries-affected warehouses ranged between $5.2 billion and $8.2 billion.

Recent operations have successfully neutralized seven of Wildberries' ten largest logistics centers, leading the marketplace to assert its legitimacy as a military target due to the availability of dual-use items for purchase on the platform.