Wildberries hit by new Ukraine drone strike, Russia says

A Wildberries warehouse in Russia's Vladimir region caught fire after a Ukrainian drone strike overnight, the company and local authorities said Monday, with the regional governor reporting one injury.

Wildberries said a fire broke out at one of its logistics sites in the region, about 180 kilometres east of Moscow, after an attack, and that warehouse staff were evacuated. Vladimir regional governor Alexander Avdeyev said drones caused damage and a fire, and said a young man was injured.

Wildberries sites in Russia and annexed Crimea have been struck around 20 times since mid-July. The first attacks, on the night of July 17-18, left eight people dead and nearly 90 wounded at sites in the Moscow and Tambov regions.

Since then, strikes have targeted Wildberries sites near Saint Petersburg, in Simferopol in Crimea, in Krasnodar and Volgograd, and in Samara.

Wildberries is a major Russian online retail platform. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described Wildberries warehouses as logistics hubs involved in supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment and other gear. Wildberries and the Kremlin have rejected that description.

Kyiv says its long-range strikes are intended to force the Kremlin to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. Russia has been waging a large-scale offensive in Ukraine since February 2022.