Russia’s Amazon takes desperate measures to avoid Ukrainian strikes
Company branding is being removed from trucks carrying goods from Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries, according to reports, as Ukrainian drones continue to wreak destruction on facilities of Russia’s version of Amazon.
Wildberries delivers clothing, electronics, groceries and household goods, but Kyiv says its warehouses support the supply of drone components and navigation equipment for the Russian military—a claim Moscow denies.
As the firm tries to deal with the economic impact of repeated drone strikes on its sites, social media users posted video purportedly showing the retailer’s branding being removed from its trucks.
The burned-out warehouse of the logistics and trading company Wildberries in the Koledino industrial park, on August 17, 2026, in Podolsk, Russia. Photo by Contributor/Getty Images.
“Wildberries also seems to be hoping that unmarked trucks will make it harder to identify which warehouses they are servicing,” posted the X channel of eastern European news outlet NEXTA, “the empire is falling apart before our eyes!!!”
In another move which appears to make the company less of a target, The Moscow Times reported last month that Wildberries has stopped displaying on its website military-related goods, and it removed tags online linked to the “special military operation,” the Kremlin’s term for the full-scale invasion.
Aurélien Colson, professor of political science at ESSEC Business School told Newsweek that Ukraine’s continued strikes on Wildberries send two messages. “First, the war will no longer remain something Russians watch from a distance, ” he said, “second, the boundary between civilian commerce and military logistics has collapsed in Russia’s war economy.”
Newsweek has contacted Wildberries and the Kremlin for comment.
Map Shows Where Ukraine Has Hit Seven of Top 10 Largest Factories
Wildberries and other rivals account for about 8.5 percent of Russia’s gross domestic product, employing more than 5 percent of the country’s workforce and has become critical in providing Russians with goods in a sanctions-hit economy.
Now the firm is reeling from repeated strikes on its facilities, which as of Wednesday, totaled 25 attacks, according to an online tracker by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. These strikes stretch from St Petersburg in Russia’s north, Krasnodar in the south and Yekaterinburg in the Urals.
Attacks on the sites were first reported on July 18 when a logistics center in Kotovsk, in the Tambov region was hit. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said that on August 16, Wildberries’ single largest warehouse, a 250,000-square-metre complex at the Koledino industrial park in Podolsk in the Moscow region, was hit.
By early August, the Ukrainian strikes had destroyed at least 1.18 million square meters of Wildberries’ warehouse space, or one-fifth of Wildberries’ total warehouse capacity at that time, according to Reuters.
A map by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) shows the seven biggest strikes which are straining Russia’s economy. The think tank said the strikes also showed how overstretched Russia’s air defenses are and its inability protect all of its necessary infrastructure in its rear.
“By hitting highly visible commercial infrastructure, Ukraine is bringing some of the war’s consequences back to the society from which the war was launched,” said Colson from ESSEC. “This is pressure on logistics, but also pressure on the Russian social contract: Putin promises war without domestic cost; Ukraine is making that promise harder to sustain.”
Colson said the strikes could also have an impact on the battlefield given how Russia’s army relies heavily on informal and semi-private supply chains such as drone parts, optics, night-vision equipment, communications gear, batteries, protective equipment and other dual-use material available at Wildberries.
“Striking e-commerce warehouses therefore does not only disrupt consumer deliveries. It also interferes with a parallel military procurement ecosystem,” he added.
Vuk Vuksanović, associate at the London School of Economics think tank, LSE IDEAS, said that the Ukrainian strikes against Wildberries’ warehouses—as well as Russian energy infrastructure—were part of a 40-day campaign by Kyiv to pressure Moscow into peace talks. They also sought to convince the West to continue supporting Ukraine and add to political pressure inside Russia by bringing the war to the Russian population.
“However, it cannot be said that it produced the desired results,” Vuksanović told Newsweek.
“Russia retains escalatory dominance, as it can always respond with even more destructive force, as evidenced by Russian strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure and gas stations, logistics facilities and the port of Odesa,” he added.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson and Cristina Diciu.
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