Ukraine Is Bringing the War to Russia’s Logistics Networks

Russia has grown accustomed to seeing the war as something that happens somewhere else. The front is on Ukrainian territory. Missile strikes hit Ukrainian cities. The economic consequences are something that can be translated into budgets, statistics or yet another price increase. But on 22 July, that distance narrowed once again.

Ukrainian drones attacked logistics centres belonging to Wildberries — Russia’s largest online retailer — in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk. According to Tatiana Kim, the company’s CEO and co-founder, several people were injured in the attacks. The strikes came just days after previous attacks on the company’s facilities, which resulted in the deaths of employees, fires and serious disruptions to operations.

At first glance, Wildberries may seem like an unusual target for a war. It is not an oil refinery or a military headquarters. It is a platform through which Russians order clothes, household goods, electronics and an increasingly broad range of products. That is precisely why the attacks matter: they show how modern warfare is increasingly eroding the distinction between “military” and “civilian” infrastructure that shaped the way earlier conflicts were understood.

Logistics Has Become Part of the War

The Ukrainian side says that the targeted Wildberries logistics centres were used to supply the Russian military with drone components, navigation equipment and other equipment. The Kremlin denies this, insisting that the company is an ordinary commercial business. Yet this dispute is central to understanding the new logic of strikes.

In modern warfare, what matters is not only what is produced at a facility, but also the networks through which goods move. E-commerce platforms control vast warehouse complexes, transport routes and distribution systems. Their infrastructure can simultaneously serve ordinary consumers, small businesses and the military economy.

That means an attack on a logistics centre can have consequences far beyond the loss of goods. If a commercial network becomes integrated into military supply chains, it is no longer merely a commercial network. And as the Russian economy is increasingly reorganised around the war, the boundary between civilian and military infrastructure becomes increasingly difficult to define.

The Strike Is Also Against the Illusion of Normality

Wildberries is a particularly symbolic target because of its role in Russian society. The company has become one of the most visible symbols of Russia’s digital economy — a platform that has turned consumption into an everyday habit. Its logistics centres are the physical foundation of that convenience: ordering, sorting, delivery and returns.

When such infrastructure burns, the impact is not limited to a company’s balance sheet. It undermines a crucial political illusion: that the war can remain a separate sphere while ordinary life continues almost unchanged.

This is an illusion the Russian authorities have spent years trying to preserve. The economy is functioning. Shops are open. Online orders are being delivered. People can continue consuming, working and living as though the war were merely a background phenomenon. But the more Ukrainian long-range drones reach targets deep inside Russia, the harder that construction becomes to maintain.

The war can now appear not only in the form of another report about an attack. It can mean destroyed goods, a closed warehouse, delayed deliveries or disruptions to a logistics network.

Scale Matters More Than a Single Strike

The 22 July attack was not an isolated event. Over the past week, Ukrainian drones have reportedly struck Wildberries facilities several times across different Russian regions. Earlier attacks hit warehouse complexes in the Moscow and Tambov regions, while the latest strikes targeted facilities in the south of the country.

This increasingly looks less like an accidental attack on a single warehouse and more like a campaign against a specific logistics network. Its purpose may lie not only in the physical destruction of infrastructure, but also in creating systemic risk across the entire model.

The more logistics hubs come under threat, the more expensive their operation becomes. Companies must alter routes, strengthen security, redistribute stocks and prepare for further attacks. For a Russian economy already operating under the pressure of a massive mobilisation of resources for the war, this creates another layer of costs.

The market reaction was telling. Following the attacks, shares in Wildberries’ competitor Ozon fell by around 4%, while industry representatives called on the authorities to consider tax relief for companies that had suffered losses. The consequences therefore extend beyond a single company: the market is beginning to reassess the security of Russia’s logistics infrastructure as a whole.

The Russian Economy Can No Longer Be “Outside the War”

The most important consequence of the campaign may be psychological. Russia has built its war economy in a way that seeks to preserve a sense of normality for the population as much as possible. The state directs resources to the front while simultaneously trying to ensure that consumers continue to receive goods, orders continue to be delivered and economic activity continues.

Ukraine’s strategy is increasingly aimed at destroying that separation.

This does not mean that one damaged warehouse network can bring down the Russian economy. Wildberries has a large and decentralised system, while the Russian state has considerable resources to restore damaged infrastructure. But the strategic effect is not measured solely by the number of goods destroyed.

The issue is the demonstration that Russia’s strategic depth is no longer a safe space for infrastructure that supports the war economy. Even companies selling clothes and household goods to consumers can find themselves at the centre of the war if their networks are used to support Russia’s military machine.

The Next Front Is the Network

The war in Ukraine is increasingly shifting from a struggle over individual facilities to a struggle over networks. Energy, fuel, manufacturing, transport and logistics no longer exist as separate sectors. They are interconnected — and it is precisely these connections that are becoming new targets.

For Europe, this is also an important signal. Future wars will not necessarily begin with attacks on obvious military facilities. They may unfold through attacks on data centres, ports, warehouses, railway hubs, delivery systems and commercial platforms that, at first glance, appear to have no direct connection to defence.

Ukraine is already fighting in this reality.

The attacks on Wildberries show that the war is no longer confined to the front line — or even to industrial facilities. It is penetrating the systems that make an economy function. For Russia, this means that preserving “normal life” is becoming increasingly expensive and difficult.

For Ukraine, it means that the ability to strike far beyond the front line is becoming one of the key instruments for putting pressure on Russia’s war economy.

And for Europe, it means that the next era of warfare will be defined not only by who controls territory, but also by who is capable of disrupting the networks on which that territory depends.

Sources: Reuters, Associated Press, Meduza, UPI