Ukrainian drones struck two warehouses run by Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, and a third industrial site outside Moscow overnight into Tuesday, killing at least five people and wounding 10, Russian regional officials said.
The strikes deepened a weeks-long Kyiv campaign against the logistics network of the company often called the "Russian Amazon," which Ukraine says supplies the Russian military and Moscow denies is used for any such purpose. The overnight attacks followed a Sunday strike that Russian state news agency Tass said had completely destroyed a Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region.
Where the drones hit
Moscow regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov said fires broke out at the Novoselki industrial zone in Chekhov, about 43 miles south of the Kremlin, after drones struck a warehouse, an electrical substation and an administration building. Seven of the 10 wounded were in moderate condition and one in serious condition, Vorobyov said, without confirming the destroyed site was run by Wildberries.
Wildberries confirmed a second facility caught fire at its Krasny Bor logistics center in the Leningrad region, which surrounds St Petersburg, and reported no staff casualties. A third Wildberries warehouse in the Tver region town of Emmaus, about 112 miles northwest of Moscow, was also damaged, regional Governor Vitaly Korolyov said. Russia's Defense Ministry said it intercepted and destroyed 320 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Wildberries accounts for as much as 10 percent of Russia's retail turnover, according to Russian media cited by CBS News. Since the February 2022 invasion, the company has been accused of helping Russians evade Western sanctions by importing branded goods through third countries.
Turkey's Black Sea warning
Turkey's Foreign Ministry condemned drone attacks late Monday on two Turkish-owned vessels leaving the Russian port of Novorossiysk. Three crew members of the roll-on/roll-off ship Nadezhda were seriously injured about 20 nautical miles offshore en route to the Turkish port of Samsun, and all 22 crew were evacuated to Russia. A second vessel, the Yasar, was also hit.
"We are deeply concerned about the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea, which is affecting civilian shipping despite our numerous warnings," the ministry said, calling on both sides to "urgently implement concrete measures to ensure the safety of navigation in the Black Sea."
Strikes on Ukraine
Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight killed at least four civilians, including two girls aged 5 and 10 and a woman in the northeastern city of Sumy, regional military chief Oleh Hryhorov said. An 89-year-old woman was killed in the southern port of Mykolaiv. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched 136 drones, 117 of which were shot down or intercepted. Moscow disputes that the Wildberries warehouses serve any military function.
Ankara warned in late May of an "uncontrolled escalation" after an earlier drone strike on a Turkish cargo ship. Its Tuesday statement extended a pattern of Turkish protest that has produced no ceasefire commitment from either capital.