Ukrainian drones strike Wildberries warehouses in central Russia

Ukrainian drones struck warehouses belonging to the online retailer Wildberries overnight in Russia's Penza region and the republic of Udmurtia, local authorities and the company confirmed on Thursday, marking the latest in a series of attacks that have damaged nearly a dozen of the firm's facilities over the past two weeks. Penza region Governor Oleg Melnichenko said that 200 Wildberries employees had been evacuated from the site and that one person had been injured in the attack, while the company confirmed its logistics centre in Penza had been targeted and that shipments had been rerouted to other facilities.

In the city of Sarapul, located in Udmurtia approximately 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Wildberries said it had evacuated warehouse employees ahead of an anticipated drone strike that later ignited a fire at the facility. Olga Abramova, the head of Udmurtia, reported that no injuries had been recorded and that emergency services were attending the scene. The Investigative Committee, Russia's top investigative body, said it had launched terrorism probes into the drone strikes in both Penza and Udmurtia, reflecting the seriousness with which Russian authorities are treating the incidents.

There were also unconfirmed reports that Ukraine had attacked a Wildberries warehouse in the Perm region, though neither the company nor Russian authorities have commented on those claims. The drone strikes are understood to have destroyed an estimated 10 per cent of Wildberries' storage capacity over the past fortnight, inflicting significant losses on tens of thousands of small businesses that use the e-commerce platform. Ukraine has accused Wildberries of helping to supply the Russian military with parts for drones and other equipment, allegations the company has consistently denied.

In a separate development in the southern Krasnodar region, Ukrainian drones struck two tanker ships at the Novorossiysk oil terminal, the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which operates the terminal, said on Thursday morning. The consortium confirmed that oil loading had been temporarily halted as a result of the attack. Russia's Defence Ministry said it had intercepted 258 Ukrainian drones across Russia and annexed Crimea between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, underscoring the scale of Kyiv's drone campaign against targets deep inside Russian territory.

The drone offensive coincided with Russian air strikes on Ukraine that killed at least eight people on Thursday, including one in Kyiv, in attacks that extended as far as the western city of Lviv and forced neighbouring Poland to scramble fighter jets to secure its airspace. The cross-border strikes come amid an intensification of long-range attacks by both sides, with Ukraine increasingly targeting infrastructure and logistics hubs inside Russia while Moscow continues its aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities. The damage to Wildberries warehouses represents a significant blow to Russia's e-commerce sector and raises questions about the vulnerability of commercial infrastructure to drone warfare, even at considerable distances from the front lines.