Ukraine's new strategy: Strikes target e-commerce giant Wildberries

Ukraine has launched a new phase in its war strategy by targeting Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries, the Russian equivalent of Amazon. In the past week, nine of the company's warehouses have been attacked, with the latest strike hitting a facility in a St. Petersburg suburb on Friday. These assaults have resulted in the destruction of approximately 552,000 square meters of warehouse space, representing a tenth of Wildberries' total capacity, and have reportedly killed nine people.

The attacks on Wildberries are seen as a strategic shift, moving beyond earlier strikes on oil refineries. The Guardian describes this as an effort to bring the war's reality closer to ordinary Russians in their cities. Wildberries is deeply integrated into daily life, serving 81 million users monthly and selling a wide range of products from clothing to game consoles. Goods worth over $2 billion are estimated to have been destroyed in the recent attacks, significantly impacting other Russian companies that rely on the platform for sales.

Russian entrepreneurs are feeling the severe economic consequences. One entrepreneur, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Guardian that she lost all her company's inventory in two separate attacks within the last week. "I am raising a child on my own and have lost everything," she stated, highlighting the personal devastation caused by the strikes.

Questions have been raised about the legitimacy of targeting Wildberries as a military objective. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has defended the bombings, asserting that Ukraine is striking facilities with goods crucial to the Russian military, including drone components. In response to the Ukrainian attacks, Russia has targeted warehouses of the Ukrainian logistics company Nova Poshta.

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I am raising a child on my own and have lost everything.