For more than two weeks, Ukrainian forces have been carrying out near-daily attacks on warehouses operated by Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace.

At least eight people have been killed and dozens have been injured. Preliminary estimates put sellers’ losses at 280 billion rubles ($3.5 billion), Forbes Russia reported on Sunday. Since then, more warehouses have been attacked and given the resulting business closures and logistical disruptions, the cost is likely to rise substantially.

The attacks appear to be part of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 40-day campaign to pressure Russia to make peace. Targeting Wildberries warehouses, alongside strikes on oil refineries and ports, are intended not only to weaken Russia’s economic capacity, bolster Ukrainian morale and generate international publicity, but also to provoke public discontent inside Russia over the war and declining living standards.

The campaign is bringing the war directly into the lives of Russians who have tried to ignore it — from makers of handmade candles and owners of family-run bakeries to residents of major cities accustomed to having almost anything delivered quickly and cheaply to pickup points near their homes.

In the second quarter of 2025, the analytics firm Sensor Tower estimated that the Wildberries app had between 67.6 million and 69.5 million weekly active users in Russia. 

The platform also served hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized sellers.

If you search Instagram in Russian for phrases such as “my goods burned in the warehouse,” you will find hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of videos posted by these business owners. Many are desperate, having lost overnight what they had spent years building. Some say they have no choice but to file for bankruptcy.

The attacks have also produced other, less visible consequences. Animal shelters in several Russian cities, for example, have turned to social media for help........

© The Moscow Times