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Ukraine has attacked two more warehouses of Russian online retailer Wildberries, the company boss said on Wednesday. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, said Ukraine struck what he described as logistics hubs in Russia’s Krasnodar and Stavropol regions involved in supplying the Russian military with drone components and other equipment. Tatyana Kim, the co-founder and head of Wildberries, said a warehouse was attacked in Krasnodar, and another in Nevinnomyssk, which is in Stavropol. In Krasnodar, the regional governor said a young woman was killed and three others taken to hospital.
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Ukraine, whose own cities are under constant attack, insists it is hitting companies and infrastructure that support the Russian military. The attacks on massive Wildberries warehouses mark a new stage in Ukraine’s campaign of deep strikes inside Russia, whose military has targeted Ukraine’s logistics hubs as well as its energy system and power grid. A Russian e-commerce lobby group, Aurek, said it had asked the government to delay tax payments for half a year for businesses that sustained losses from the Wildberries attacks.
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Coinciding with the latest strikes, Mykhailo Drapatyi, Ukraine’s new top military commander, said he had been tasked with stepping up counteroffensive actions and launching new operations inside Russia. “The president of Ukraine has set clear objectives for us: to continue and intensify offensive operations in all domains, to plan new operations behind enemy lines, to develop our military and its technologies, and to build up the capabilities of the armed forces of Ukraine.”
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Pjotr Sauer writes that Drapatyi’s appointment is one of the few wartime decisions in Ukraine to command near-universal support, reflecting his high standing across the country’s political, military and civil society circles, and helping to steady the political mood after days of turmoil in Kyiv. Drapatyi famously charged a tank-like armoured vehicle through a pro-Russian blockade in Mariupol in 2014.
