MOSCOW: Ukraine has attacked two more warehouses of Russian online retailer Wildberries, its boss said on Wednesday (Jul 22), extending a series of drone strikes on a company at the heart of Russia's consumer economy.Tatyana Kim, the co-founder and head of Wildberries, said warehouses had been attacked in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk, both in southern Russia. Social media footage, verified by Reuters, showed a huge plume of smoke rising into the air in Krasnodar. The regional governor said a young woman had been killed and three other people were being treated in hospital. Wildberries, often described as Russia's Amazon, is one of the country's biggest employers. Its shares are not publicly traded, but those of its rival Ozon were down 2.3 per cent on Wednesday afternoon, recovering somewhat from earlier lows, on concerns it too could become a target.
The attacks on Wildberries' massive warehouses mark a new stage in Ukraine's campaign of deep strikes inside Russia to undermine Moscow's war effort and bring the conflict home to ordinary Russians. Ukraine, whose own cities are under constant attack, says it is hitting companies and infrastructure that support the Russian military. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday described the latest targets as logistics hubs involved in supplying Russian forces with drone components and other equipment.The Kremlin has denied Wildberries handles military supplies. Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine's logistics hubs as well as its energy system and power grid.
