Wildberries, often described as “Russia’s Amazon,” said the facility was evacuated and that no goods were being stored there at the time, Reuters reported.

The strike marked the latest in a series of Ukrainian attacks affecting the e-commerce firm’s sites across Russia that began July 18, when drones hit centers in Kotovsk and Elektrostal, killing seven and wounding more than 60, according to reports.

BRINGING THE WAR TO PUTIN’S FRONT DOOR: IS UKRAINE’S ENERGY STRIKE STRATEGY WORKING?

Four days later, drones struck facilities in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk, sparking fires and injuring 15 people.

“We can call it ‘kinetic sanctions enforcement,’ or Ukraine’s adaptation of economic coercion into physical strikes,” Kateryna Bondar, senior fellow at the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Fox News Digital.

“Kyiv’s goal is to steadily raise the cost and risk of sustaining Russia’s war economy,” the former Ukrainian government adviser said, adding that the economic impact could be significant.

The total losses incurred by Wildberries and its sellers as a result of the attacks have been estimated at 600 billion to 800 billion rubles ($6 billion to $8.5 billion), Ukrainian media outlet Pravda reported.

“With only 5% to 7% of sellers insured, the damage is cascading onto tens of thousands of small businesses and forcing Russia’s logistics sector to reprice wartime risk,” Bondar said.

“Roughly 27% of Wildberries warehouse capacity is reportedly out of operation,” she added.

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Beyond the financial toll, Bondar said the strikes also carry a significant psychological impact.

“I’ve listened to videos recorded by witnesses, and reactions range from fear, shock, and anger to disappointment in the capabilities of Russian air defenses,” she said. “So that effect is clearly being achieved.”

Wildberries founder and CEO Tatyana Kim has since accused Ukraine of deliberately targeting a civilian company. In a July 31 video address, she described the strikes as a “terrorist attack.”

“For nearly two weeks now, our company’s warehouses have been under terrorist attack. Why our warehouses, of all places? Attacks against us are attacks against hundreds of millions of people in 10 countries at once,” Kim said.

Kim claimed Wildberries entrepreneurs in Russia and partner countries, including China and Kazakhstan, had “suffered losses amounting to billions,” arguing that the company itself should not be held responsible for covering all the losses.

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“Merchants will start pricing Russian logistics risk into their business decisions,” Bondar warned.

Kim said sellers from ten countries, including China, have suffered billions in losses, while Wildberries maintains it is not liable which creates incentives to diversify away from the platform, shorten inventory cycles, demand prepayment, and increase insurance costs.

Bondar said Kyiv views the retail giant’s sprawling supply chain through a military and economic lens.

“Kyiv assesses Wildberries warehouses as distribution nodes for dual-use goods, including body armor, helmets, fiber-optic cable for FPV drones, and navigation components, as well as channels for sanctions circumvention,” Bondar said.

“The strikes also retaliate for Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s civilian logistics infrastructure, including the Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta networks.”

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Kim is Russia’s richest woman, with Forbes estimating her fortune at roughly $7 billion in July.

“Kim matters to the Kremlin less as an individual than as an asset already absorbed into its clan system,” Bondar said. “The current strikes expose the limits of her political protection: the Kremlin has remained largely silent, while Kim is negotiating tax deferrals rather than receiving compensation or air-defense protection from them.”

“It sends the message to Russia’s business elite that proximity to power does not guarantee protection, and private businesses are expected to absorb the costs of war,” Bondar added.

The attacks have also drawn scrutiny to Wildberries’ warehouse security procedures and a controversial new policy restricting workers’ cellphone use.

REPORT WARNS RUSSIA USING SHADOW FLEET TO PROBE NATO DRONE DEFENSES

“The smartphone ban is officially justified as an air-defense security measure, but the real concern appears to be information control,” Bondar said.

“Employees were filming strikes and sharing footage in real time, making the damage and the war’s impact on ordinary Russians impossible to hide,” she added. “The policy also exposes a serious vulnerability: workers reportedly had their phones locked away during attacks, limiting their ability to call for help.”

“Wildberries cannot harden its sprawling warehouses or provide air defense, so it is controlling the one thing it can — what gets recorded and seen,” Bondar said.

Here is what is known about the growing military ties:

THE LATEST REPORTS

A North Korean missile unit has begun deploying to western Russia and could be equipped with up to 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers for attacks on Ukraine, an official at Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said.

The unit comprises about 90 North Korean personnel and is expected to be based in Russia’s Voronezh region, the official said. The United States is aware of the North Korean deployment, a source familiar with the issue told Reuters.

Forty North Korean missiles have already been supplied, at least two of which were launched at Ukraine last week during a deadly strike, the Ukrainian official said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in July that Russia wanted to bring in 30,000 North Korean troops and was preparing facilities in Voronezh to receive them.

Reuters could not independently verify that statement.

HOW MANY NORTH KOREAN TROOPS WERE SENT TO RUSSIA IN 2024?

North Korea sent around 14,000 to 15,000 soldiers to Russia’s Kursk region, according to Ukrainian and South Korean estimates, helping Moscow’s forces repel a surprise Ukrainian ground incursion.

Russia and North Korea confirmed in April 2025 that North Korean troops had fought Ukrainian forces in Kursk.

Russia’s top military commander praised their role after Moscow said it had retaken Kursk territory, while Pyongyang said the deployment was ordered by leader Kim Jong Un.

The Ukrainian official said this month that around 9,500 North Korean troops remained in Kursk, but were not directly involved in operations against Ukraine.

WHAT OTHER PERSONNEL HAS NORTH KOREA SAID IT WILL PROVIDE?

In June 2025, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said North Korea would send 1,000 sappers and 5,000 military construction workers to Kursk to clear mines and help rebuild infrastructure damaged in the fighting.

That same month, South Korean lawmakers, citing a briefing by the National Intelligence Service, said that North Korea appeared to have begun recruiting personnel for an additional deployment to Russia, while continuing to supply Russia with artillery ammunition and missiles in exchange for economic cooperation and technical assistance.

It remains unclear how many engineers, deminers or additional troops have arrived in Russia, or whether they have been used in combat roles.

WHAT WEAPONS HAS NORTH KOREA PROVIDED?

North Korea has supplied Russia with millions of artillery and mortar rounds, ballistic missiles, long-range artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, according to Ukrainian and independent assessments.

A Reuters analysis with the British-based Open Source Centre found four Russian-flagged cargo ships made 64 voyages to North Korea’s Rajin port between September 2023 and March 2025, transporting nearly 16,000 containers of ammunition to Russian ports.

Ukrainian officials said North Korea was supplying about half of the munitions Russia needed on the front lines.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said that North Korea had delivered 4 million artillery shells since mid-2023, excluding mortar rounds. It said North Korea had supplied 148 KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles by the start of 2025.

WHY IS NORTH KOREA HELPING RUSSIA?

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty during Putin’s June 2024 visit to Pyongyang. The pact includes a mutual assistance provision if either country faces external aggression.

North Korea has cast its deployment as assistance to a treaty partner. Kim said in May 2025 that participation in the war was justified as an exercise of North Korea’s sovereign rights in defense of a “brother nation.”

Analysts say Pyongyang stands to gain hard currency, oil and other economic support, as well as access to Russian military technology and battlefield experience for its forces and weapons.

North Korean soldiers have gained combat exposure to drones, electronic warfare, artillery coordination and modern battlefield tactics, while its missile and ammunition makers have been able to assess their equipment in wartime conditions.

THE INTERNATIONAL REACTION

The United States and its allies have said the troop deployments and arms transfers violate U.N. Security Council resolutions on North Korea.

Pyongyang has been subject to U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. The sanctions prohibit countries from hosting North Korean trainers, advisers or other officials for military, paramilitary or police training.

Washington imposed additional sanctions in December 2024 on North Korean and Russian entities connected to Pyongyang’s military and financial support for Moscow. South Korea also blacklisted individuals and entities linked to illicit military cooperation between the two countries.

NATO has said Russia’s growing military and economic ties with North Korea, China and Iran pose a threat beyond Europe, extending to the Indo-Pacific and North America.

Last week, China joined the club of countries that have launched an orbital mission and brought its booster safely back to Earth, which is just the beginning of public and private ventures in that country aggressively pushing into rocket reuse. Also in Asia, Japan’s space agency has been conducting hop tests, and Honda recently performed vertical reuse tests.

In the United States, of course, SpaceX launches and lands reusable rockets every few days. Blue Origin, although its New Glenn booster is temporarily grounded, has also demonstrated the ability to both land and re-launch a large orbital booster. Other US companies, including Stoke Space, Rocket Lab, and Relativity Space, are all making credible progress toward partially or fully reusable rockets.

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