Fires Ravage Logistics Sites in Russia’s Orenburg and St. Petersburg

Massive fires erupted at two major Russian logistics and industrial facilities early Sunday morning, Aug. 23, including a drone strike on a fulfillment center belonging to the e-commerce giant Ozon.

In the city of Orenburg, a drone attack targeted the “Orenbuzhye” Special Economic Zone. Mayor Albert Yumadilov stated that multiple uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) were intercepted over the industrial area, but falling debris ignited a fire at the Ozon logistics complex.

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reportedly extinguished the blaze shortly after.

According to Astra Telegram channel, following the strike, Ozon management announced the evacuation of more than 300 employees from the logistics center. The company temporarily suspended all warehouse deliveries and hid goods stored at the facility from its marketplace storefront.

The Orenburg Ozon hub represents a major investment for the company. The first phase of the complex, covering 40,000 square meters, (430,556 square feet) opened in August 2024 following investments exceeding 4 billion rubles ($43 million).

A planned spring 2025 expansion aimed to double its size, allowing the facility to store over 31 million goods and process up to 915,000 orders daily.

Concurrently, a massive fire broke out in Kolpino, a suburb of St. Petersburg, at the Izhora industrial site. The blaze engulfed a “Logistera” warehouse. Russian EMERCOM assigned the fire a level 4 complexity rating, reporting that the affected area spanned 82,000 square meters (882,640 square feet).

The Izhora industrial zone is a major hub for Russian heavy industry, housing metallurgy, metalworking, and heavy machinery enterprises, as well as production facilities tied to the energy and nuclear sectors.

While local authorities in St. Petersburg did not declare a drone or missile threat during the night, OSINT analysts from the Astra Telegram channel noted that the burning warehouse was located just 350 meters from another Ozon warehouse.

Previous strikes on Russian military and logistics sites

The fires in Orenburg and St. Petersburg follow a coordinated wave of strikes targeting Russian logistics and military infrastructure the previous day.

On Aug. 22, drones struck the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in the Samara region, causing a fire at the Rosneft facility, which processes approximately 8.8 million tons of oil annually.

Simultaneously, reports indicated another strike on a 75,000-square-meter (807,293-square-foot) Ozon fulfillment center in Samara. In the Krasnodar region, drone strikes targeted the seaport of Yeysk, where independent media reported visible smoke and a potential vessel fire.

The expansion of strikes to Ozon facilities follows a sustained, month-long Ukrainian campaign targeting the logistics infrastructure of its main competitor, Wildberries.

Since mid-July, at least 22 Wildberries warehouses have been hit, representing the loss of about 43% of the company’s total storage capacity and an estimated $918 million in goods destroyed in a single strike in Koledino on Aug. 16.

Alongside the strikes on commercial logistics, Ukraine continues to target Russian military aviation and drone infrastructure.

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Aug. 22 that Ukrainian forces destroyed a Russian Su-24M aircraft and four pieces of aviation equipment at the Saky airfield in occupied Crimea.

He also verified that Ukrainian strikes successfully eliminated drone relay stations in Russia’s Bryansk region, which Russian forces had utilized to guide UAVs toward Ukrainian territory.

Additionally, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine published confirmed damage assessments from an Aug. 20 strike on the Primorsko-Akhtarsk airfield in Russia’s Krasnodar region, verifying the destruction of a Russian “Niobi” radar station and 18 warehouse buildings used for storing UAVs.