Moscow (AFP) – Ukraine has hit the warehouses of Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries — Moscow’s equivalent of Amazon — at least three times in a week, killing several employees, causing fires and business losses. Kyiv accuses the e-commerce giant — which employs thousands of people and has become a key part of the economy — of storing drone parts and helping the Russian army. Here is what we know about Wildberries and how it became a target for Ukraine — which has intensified retaliatory strikes on Russia in the fifth year of the war.
– **Series of attacks** – Early Saturday, Ukrainian drones hit Wildberries warehouses in the towns of Elektrostal and Kotovsk, causing huge fires and killing eight employees — in the first such attack on the company. Elektrostal is just outside Moscow, while Kotovsk is about 400 kilometres (250 miles) further south in the Tambov region. On Wednesday, Kyiv’s drones targeted two other Wildberries warehouses and logistics centres in southern Russia, killing one person and sparking evacuations. And on Friday, Kyiv hit Wildberries warehouses outside Saint Petersburg and in Moscow-annexed Crimea. After the attacks, Zelensky said Kyiv had struck “logistics hubs involved in supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment and other gear.”
– **Evacuations, business losses** – Wildberries employs tens of thousands of people across Russia, with warehouses and pickup locations all over the massive country — reaching even remote areas of Russia. The company has an important role in the Russian economy, with small and medium businesses relying on the courier services. The attacks come as Russian businesses are struggling with limited internet, tax hikes and fuel shortages caused by Ukrainian strikes. The fires at Wildberries have affected sellers reliant on the platform, some of whom have posted frustrated social media messages. Viktoria Terekhova, founder of a children’s clothing brand, said in a video on Instagram that she had lost “practically all” her stock and had no way of obtaining compensation. “We lost not only the goods but also all the money invested in them…I hope I have the strength, courage, and resilience to get over this,” she said, breaking into tears. Wildberries CEO Tatiana Kim — Russia’s richest woman — has said the company will support the families of wounded and killed employees and was working on security measures and re-directing goods. “As a priority it is important for us to support the smallest and less protected entrepreneurs — there are more than 88,000 of them,” she said on Telegram this week. Kim has not publicly commented on Ukraine’s accusations, saying only that Kyiv had attacked “ordinary people.” She has said Wildberries was “focused on redistributing” across its warehouses and “ensuring the financial stability of our partners.”
– **Russia’s richest woman** – Wildberries and its rival Ozon are the most popular courier services in Russia. Kim is Russia’s richest woman, with an estimated wealth of $8.1 billion, according to Forbes. Born in Soviet Chechnya to an ethnic Korean family, Kim founded the company in 2004, reportedly out of her Moscow apartment while on maternity leave with one of her seven children. The company boomed on the back of the economic growth seen during President Vladimir Putin’s first terms in office.
– **Russian Amazon** – Wildberries’ business model is based on a massive network of tens of thousands of pickup locations, extending to remote towns in Russia and to some of its neighbours. The company claims to process more than 20 million transactions a day. Since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, the Wildberries network has been accused of facilitating the circumvention of Western sanctions by offering goods that are otherwise unavailable in Russia. Russians can order anything from clothing to medicine, children’s products, and furniture on Wildberries, which also offers a wide range of Chinese products. People can also sell used products on the platform. The company has not given an estimate of the losses suffered in the Ukrainian strikes.
© 2024 AFP
