Ukrainian drone strikes dent Wildberries’ reach as Russian e‑commerce adapts to warehouse losses
Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian logistics hubs cut Wildberries’ customer reach by 10% in August and September year-on-year and reduced time spent on its site by 28%, even as the company lost about 32% of its warehouses. The data show how strikes on civilian logistics are beginning to reshape how Russians shop and how platforms keep goods moving.
Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian logistics and distribution centres are now showing up in consumer data, with Wildberries reporting a noticeable decline in reach and user engagement after significant damage to its warehouse network.
Following a campaign that targeted Wildberries’ logistics and distribution hubs in August and September, the platform’s reach to customers fell by 10% year-on-year for those two months. During the same period, the company lost around 32% of its warehouses to Ukrainian strikes, a level of physical damage that far exceeded the drop in reach but still left a clear mark on performance.
User behaviour also shifted. Time spent on the Wildberries website decreased by 28% over the same timeframe. That kind of fall can reflect fewer available products, longer delivery promises, or customers gradually moving part of their shopping to other sites.
Ozon, another major Russian e‑commerce chain, has also been heavily targeted by Ukrainian drones hitting its warehouse network. The available reporting does not provide the same specific percentages for Ozon’s reach or time-on-site, but notes that warehouse damage there has been severe as well.
For Russian consumers, the impact shows up in practical ways such as slower deliveries and reduced choice in some product categories. For workers in these warehouses and logistics nodes, the strikes have turned what were once routine commercial sites into locations exposed to drone attacks.
For Kyiv, these operations extend the conflict into Russia’s civilian logistics chain and hit well-known brands. The pressure comes not only from physical damage but from the extra costs companies face as they reroute shipments, rebuild stock positions, and look for safer storage locations.
The Wildberries figures also highlight the resilience and limits of large e‑commerce operations under stress. Losing nearly a third of warehouse capacity did not produce an equivalent collapse in reach, which suggests that backup facilities and flexible routing can absorb some shocks. Yet a 28% drop in time spent on the site points to erosion in user experience that may be harder to repair quickly.
How these trends develop will depend on both the frequency of future strikes and the speed at which companies can restore or relocate capacity. Deeper year-on-year declines in reach or engagement, or announcements that logistics operations are being shifted farther from Ukraine or toward areas judged safer from drones, would indicate that the pressure is forcing more structural change in Russia’s online retail market.
Sources
- OSINT