{"id":2617,"date":"2026-08-17T04:11:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=2617"},"modified":"2026-08-17T04:11:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T04:11:03","slug":"ukraine-takes-aim-at-russias-economy-and-morale-by-attacking-online-retailer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topmovingpross.com\/?p=2617","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine takes aim at Russia\u2019s economy and morale by attacking online retailer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The attacks began on a July weekend<\/span> and have continued for a month, stretching from Moscow and St. Petersburg, to cities in the south, and eastward to the Ural Mountains. The targets weren\u2019t oil refineries, maritime hubs or arms plants hit by other Ukrainian strikes, but warehouses that bring the convenience of online shopping across the breadth of Russia.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump orders Pentagon to scale back joint exercises with South Korea<\/a><\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s drones have pummeled<\/span> the giant depots belonging to Wildberries, Russia\u2019s biggest online retailer, burning billions of dollars\u2019 worth of merchandise and bringing the war home to the broad public.<\/p>\n

The attacks on about 20 Wildberries facilities have underlined Kyiv\u2019s ability to strike far and wide inside Russia and posed a new challenge to President Vladimir Putin nearly 4\u00bd years into his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/span><\/p>\n

They have badly shaken the empire built by Tatyana Kim, the country\u2019s richest female entrepreneur, whose fortune has been estimated at $8.1 billion.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of individual sellers have lost their merchandise, sending shock waves across Russia\u2019s economy.<\/span> Wildberries has drawn massive loans from VTB and other banks as it expanded and likely will have trouble repaying them, putting more pressure on the financial system.<\/p>\n

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An online giant began in a Moscow apartment<\/h2>\n

Kim, 50, was born in Grozny, the capital of the province of Chechnya, to an ethnic Korean family of an engineer and a teacher. She launched Wildberries in 2004 from her Moscow apartment soon after giving birth to her first child while working as an English teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea was born from my own needs, and turned out to be needed by hundreds of thousands,\u201d said Kim, now a mother of seven. \u201cIf a product or service makes your own life easier, you\u2019re on the right track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wildberries initially sold clothing before expanding to appliances, household items, cosmetics, books and more. The platform with its distinct purple logo has become an undisputed leader in e-commerce, accounting for about half of all online orders in Russia. Businesses big and small use it to store, ship and deliver merchandise across the country\u2019s 11 time zones.<\/p>\n

An estimated 500,000 to 800,000 sellers use Wildberries, often described as Russia\u2019s Amazon. After Western brands fled following the war in Ukraine, online retailers filled the void with merchandise from China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

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The company also acquired a bank, expanded to tourism and even considered buying an airline.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Kim divorced her husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk, triggering a fight for control of the company. Bakalchuk sought the support of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov<\/span> and his feared paramilitary forces but eventually lost the battle, which peaked in a shootout at a business center near the Kremlin that left two people dead and several wounded.<\/p>\n

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Wildberries depots are easy targets<\/h2>\n

The company has prided itself on relying on about two dozen mammoth warehouses as the core of its vast logistical network stockpiling the goods before shipping to about 100,000 storefront distribution points nationwide.<\/p>\n

Rival online retailers Ozon and Yandex Market use smaller depots spread over a wider network.<\/p>\n

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