Residents of St. Petersburg woke up Friday to find their Wildberries on fire, following a series of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russia's largest online retailer. The Associated Press sold the attacks as "hurting small businesses and bringing the war home," but there's more to it than that.
Often called "the Russian Amazon," Wildberries has only grown in importance after four-plus years of war.
When I first read earlier this week that Kyiv had taken out two massive Wildberries facilities near Moscow, I assumed it was part of a wider campaign to bring the war home to typical Russians. But military analyst Chris O. called it "a huge disaster for the Russian economy" because Wildberries is "one of the most structurally important companies in the Russian economy."
In addition to the material losses to Wildberries customers and third-party sellers, the company also serves as a "key channel for dual-use material and non-lethal supplies for soldiers at the front – drones, spare parts, night vision equipment, boots, uniforms, generators, and so on."
Serhii Kuzan, chairman of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation, told the BBC this week that Wildberries is “a vital component” of Russia’s military logistics system, and United24 noted that "disrupting its distribution infrastructure could affect the supply of critical dual-use goods to Russia’s defense sector."
Not to mention all the consumer goods that went up in flames. Various sources indicate that Wildberries' new terms and conditions absolve it of any liability to buyers or third-party sellers for war-related losses.
That's gonna hurt.
Wildberries makes enough war-related loans to Moscow that the e-tailer's financial arm made the latest round of E.U. sanctions, which also included a number of banking and energy oligarchs and an additional 41 shadow-fleet vessels.
And now, Kyiv is applying what folks over there jokingly call "kinetic sanctions," even if the joke is grim. Here's the scene in St. Petersburg:
I probably don't have to remind you that St. Petersburg is Russia's second-most important city, and probably its most beautiful. It's also wide-open to drone strikes.
"Eight Wildberries warehouses, accounting for over 10% of the company's logistics capacity, have now been attacked since July 18 when the first attack on the retailer killed eight workers," Reuters reported today.
In addition to the first attacks near Moscow on the 18th, on July 21, Ukraine hit two of the company's logistics hubs in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk. Once again, the resulting fires were impressive.
Tatyana Kim, founder of Wildberries and the richest woman in Russia, said of the St. Petersburg strikes, "We managed to save some of the premises and goods. I would like to thank our staff, our heroes – a swift evacuation was carried out at all warehouses." Kim added that no casualties have been reported.
No casualties but plenty of losses, as the war comes home to Russia.
Recommended: What Will Trump Say About This Billion-Dollar EU Fine?
I will never blow up your Wildberries. But I do have some great stuff you can't get anywhere else.
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Steve launched VodkaPundit on a well-planned whim in 2002, and has been with PJ Media since its launch in 2005. He served as one of the hosts of PJTV, a pioneer in internet broadcasting. He also cohosts "Right Angle" with Bill Whittle and Scott Ott at BillWhittle.com. He lives with his wife and sons in the wooded hills of Monument, Colorado, where he enjoys the occasional adult beverage.
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