Ukraine’s expanding deep-strike campaign impacted Russia’s largest online retailer again Thursday, when a drone struck an oil and petrochemical complex in Bashkortostan, sparking a fire at a Wildberries facility, according to reports.
Wildberries, often described as "Russia’s Amazon," said the facility was evacuated and that no goods were being stored there at the time, 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 not be held responsible for covering all the losses.
"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."
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."
The attacks have also drawn scrutiny regarding Wildberries’ warehouse security procedures and a controversial new policy restricting workers’ cellphone use.
"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."