Why Ukraine is targeting Russia's biggest online retailer? Sources reveal strategy
Wildberries is struggling to recover from Ukrainian strikes (photo: Getty Images)
The Ukrainian Defense Forces' attacks on warehouses belonging to the Russian online marketplace Wildberries have a specific objective and are part of a broader strategy, according to the RBC-Ukraine report.
Powerful strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine led Wildberries to remove its "Everything for the Special Military Operation" section. However, hundreds of thousands of military-related products did not disappear — they were simply moved to other categories.
Russian media reports claim that Ukraine has managed to damage between six and nine company facilities. Analysts, meanwhile, have concluded that up to 10% of Wildberries' warehouse capacity has been temporarily taken offline.
RBC-Ukraine's sources in the Ukrainian Defense Forces emphasize that the company has 10 logistics hubs of "strategic importance." As of the morning of July 29, damage to seven of them had been confirmed.
Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the attacks on Wildberries warehouses were a response to enemy strikes on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure. It is quite possible that he was referring to shelling of Nova Poshta, Ukraine's largest private parcel delivery company, a theory that is being discussed increasingly often.
According to the sources, the campaign against Wildberries is part of a broader plan. Since Ukraine has already knocked out more than 40% of Russia's oil refining capacity, it has decided to intensify its efforts in another area.
The primary goal is to paralyze Russian logistics.
"We struck oil refineries, created fuel shortages and problems with fuel deliveries and petroleum product exports. Now this should make it harder for the Russian military to obtain drone components. And not only that — the war started by Russia and its consequences should also be felt by civilians inside Russia," one informed RBC-Ukraine source explained.
In effect, Kyiv is counting not only on a military impact but also on a socio-economic one. This is easier to achieve when consumers, for example, do not receive their ordered goods or gadgets on time — or do not receive them at all.
According to the report, Ukraine's campaign against Wildberries is expected to affect many people:
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Company employees, who will begin questioning the practicality and safety of working at such facilities.
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Small and medium-sized businesses, whose sellers are losing their goods and complaining about the marketplace because of the lack of compensation or only symbolic compensation.
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The marketplace's owners, who will suffer not only significant financial losses but will also be forced to reconsider their logistics model.
Russia's Wildberries had already begun looking for warehouse space in another country amid attacks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
It became known that the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked at least 10 Wildberries warehouses in just one week.
