Leading Russian online retailer Wildberries halted operations at one of its warehouses following a Ukrainian drone attack overnight on Thursday, as Kyiv broadens its campaign against a company at the heart of Russia's consumer economy.
The Kremlin has denied that Wildberries handles military supplies. Russia has targeted Ukraine's logistics hubs as well as its energy system and power grid.
Open source data analysis by Russia's Kommersant daily showed that the recent attacks have damaged approximately 10% of Wildberries' logistics capacity, equivalent to 552,000 square metres (5.9 million square feet) of warehouse space.
The company has not commented on the scale of the damage, but the Kremlin has said Wildberries, as well as the small and medium-sized businesses who sell goods on its platform, have all suffered financial losses.
CONSUMER ECONOMY KEY TO RUSSIA'S GROWTH
Together with smaller rivals, Wildberries and top competitor Ozon sell goods and services worth the equivalent of 8.5% of Russia's gross domestic product and employ 4 million people, or more than 5% of the country's workforce.
For the Kremlin, the continued expansion of the consumer economy is key to its plans to jumpstart broader growth across Russia's stagnating, war-focused economy.
On Thursday, the governor of Russia's Voronezh region said the roof of a warehouse belonging to an online marketplace had been damaged in an overnight attack that also killed a three-year-old boy.
Alexander Gusev, the governor, did not name the owner of the warehouse.
But on Thursday morning, the Wildberries team in Voronezh wrote on Telegram that it was extending the suspension of operations at the warehouse from 12 a.m. to 7 a.m.
Several hours later, it posted again, saying the Voronezh warehouse would remain closed. "We see all your inquiries and concerns," the company wrote. "Please be patient."
Contacted by Reuters on Thursday, the company said: "Warehouse operations will resume shortly."
