Ukraine Strikes Wildberries Warehouses in Penza and Sarapul as Fires Burn
Ukraine strikes on Wildberries warehouses in Penza and Sarapul have caused large fires as part of a continuing campaign against the Russian online retailer’s logistics network. Ukrainian drones hit facilities in Penza, Sarapul in Udmurtia, and Perm Krai on July 29-30, with footage showing fire and smoke rising from the struck sites. [1][5] The attacks come amid a broader Russian overnight missile and drone barrage on Ukraine that killed at least eight people and sent a Kh-101 missile into Polish territory.
Ukrainian Strikes on Wildberries Warehouses
Ukrainian drones struck Wildberries logistics facilities in Penza around 600 km from the front line and in Sarapul around 1,300 km from the front line on the morning of July 30. [1] Two more Wildberries facilities were added to the list of damaged hubs, with fires burning so intensely that total loss remained possible. [1] Photos and videos on Russian social media showed damage to a Wildberries warehouse in Sarapul where a huge fire burned, and Ukrainian Telegram channels reported a likely strike on a Wildberries logistics centre on the outskirts of Perm. [5] The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stated that units of Ukraine’s defence forces struck a number of important enemy facilities on July 29 and the night of July 29-30 as part of efforts to reduce the military-economic potential of the Russian aggressor. [5] Wildberries’ press service confirmed the fire in Sarapul and said firefighting units were working at the scene with early reports indicating no casualties and that people had been evacuated in advance. [5] Earlier reports noted a drone attack on a Wildberries sorting hub in Penza on the night of July 29-30 that caused a large fire at one of the company’s key distribution hubs serving the Volga Federal District. [5]
Context and Potential Economic Impact
The attacks on Wildberries represent the start of a campaign that began with the first two warehouses struck only two weeks earlier. [1] Officially the main reason for the attacks is that Wildberries sells military equipment including vests, drones, fibre-optic cables and other drone components, with the online retailer previously maintaining a website category entitled “Everything for the SVO” that contained more than 200,000 items. [1] The company removed that section from its offering this week. [1] Ukrainians have now attacked at least 12 warehouses, reducing the company’s storage capacity by approximately 10 percent overall, with strikes focused mainly on its largest warehouses out of around 200 logistics facilities in total. [1] Around 50 percent of Russia’s online commerce currently passes through the platform, which operates similarly to Amazon as an intermediary connecting Russian sellers with customers. [1] Around 200,000 Russian companies sell through Wildberries. [1] Wildberries chief executive Tatiana Kim changed the company’s terms for sellers at the beginning of July to classify fires and explosions as force majeure events, meaning the company does not cover sellers’ losses caused by such incidents. [1] Financial analyst Andriy Shevchyshyn estimated to RBC Ukraine that sellers had lost goods worth between $1bn and $1.3bn during the attacks, while total damage amounted to around $2bn. [1] The median annual income of Russian sellers on Wildberries is around $7,500. [1] Denys Shtilerman, head of Ukrainian company Fire Point, said the attacks would affect the Russian banking system because Russian banks had financed Wildberries as well as Ozon, and that VTB Bank, which bought a five-percent stake in WB Bank, a Wildberries subsidiary, could face irretrievable losses on loans worth trillions of roubles. [1]
Man's body recovered from rubble of five-storey building in Lviv after Russian missile strike. — Source: ukrainskapravda
Russian Overnight Attack on Ukraine
Russia launched more than 70 missiles and roughly 280 drones across Ukraine overnight into Thursday. [4] Ukrainian defenses intercepted 55 missiles and 265 drones, though only one of nine ballistic missiles was shot down while 11 missiles and 17 drones struck targets at 20 locations. [4] One strike destroyed a five-storey building in Lviv where emergency workers later found the body of a man under the rubble. [2] Six people including two young girls ages 5 and 12 were killed when a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile struck a private home near Kryvyi Rih. [4] Seven others were reported killed in Kyiv and elsewhere in the Dnipropetrovsk and Poltava regions. [4] In Lviv about 40 miles from the Polish border, emergency crews searched damaged apartment buildings for people trapped beneath concrete and debris, with thirty people including children reported injured and more than 20 residential buildings, a school and two kindergartens damaged. [4] In Kyiv a 31-year-old man was killed and two others were wounded, with Russian strikes damaging residential buildings, vehicles, storage facilities, a market and a garage complex. [4]
Missile Crash on Polish Territory
A Russian Kh-101 cruise missile violated Polish airspace and crashed near Tarnawa-Kolonia around 80 km from the border with Ukraine, leaving a large crater in a field with no casualties or damage to property. [1][4] Polish forces detected an unidentified object moving west through the country’s airspace shortly before 4 a.m., dispatched an F-16 to intercept it, and later found a crater about 33 feet wide and scattered debris in farmland near Tarnawa-Kolonia about 1.2 miles from the closest buildings. [4] Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said all indications were that it was a Russian Kh-101 missile and that Polish forces were prepared to shoot it down if it had continued flying toward a populated area. [1][4] Polish airspace had been violated during the Russian attack on Ukraine. [1]
Strike on Lukoil Oil Refinery in Perm
Ukrainian forces struck the Lukoil-Permnefteorgsintez oil refinery in Perm on July 29, causing a fire in a primary processing unit. [3][5] The facility processes more than 13 million metric tons of crude oil annually and produces gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel, and lubricating oils. [3] Perm Krai Governor Dmitry Makhonin confirmed that an industrial facility had been struck, saying several drones were intercepted while approaching the site and that no people were injured. [3] The Security Service of Ukraine claimed responsibility for the attack on the refinery located more than 1,500 kilometers from Ukraine. [3][5] The strike forms part of Ukraine’s campaign of long-range attacks deep inside Russia targeting the country’s oil industry. [3]
Zelenskyy Statements and International Response
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the barrage exposed a critical shortage of Western-supplied interceptors, particularly against ballistic missiles, and that the protection of people’s lives depends directly on allies’ willingness to provide Ukraine with air-defense missiles. [4] Hours later the European Union disbursed $4 billion to Ukraine to finance the procurement of more drones, missiles, air defense and fighter jets as part of a more than $100 billion loan approved earlier this year. [4] Zelenskyy confirmed on July 29 that Ukraine had imposed long-range sanctions on an oil refinery in Perm Krai. [3] He said he met with Ukraine’s military leadership on July 26 to review the country’s long-range strike campaign against Russia and that Ukrainian forces had carried out more than 1,000 strike missions as part of long-range sanctions since the start of 2026. [3]
What to watch next: Zelenskyy’s Washington visit included discussion of U.S. licenses allowing Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptors along with other defense cooperation and efforts to revive stalled diplomacy with Moscow, while the Senate advanced the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 that would impose sanctions on Russian officials, oligarchs, financial institutions, energy projects and vessels. [4]
