Ukraine hits Wildberries warehouses near Saint Petersburg

Ukrainian drones hit warehouses belonging to Russian e-commerce company Wildberries on Friday for the third time in six days, with the latest strike near Saint Petersburg causing a fire and smoke over the city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strike successful and accused Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, of supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment and military gear.

Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim said two of the company's logistics facilities in Saint Petersburg and one in Simferopol, in Russian-annexed Crimea, were hit. She said rapid evacuations were carried out at all the warehouses and that preliminary information showed no casualties.

Russia's defence ministry said its forces shot down about 571 drones overnight over more than a dozen regions and Crimea, describing one of the largest overnight drone barrages of the war.

In Saint Petersburg, a reporter saw grey smoke rising over high-rise residential buildings. Thick black smoke was still rising from at least one site hours after the strike. Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo airport suspended flights during the attack and resumed operations around 06:00 local time, or 03:00 GMT, with about 50 departures disrupted.

Residents described fear over the strikes. Anna, a 50-year-old teacher from Saint Petersburg, said they were frightening. Svetlana, a 30-year-old cashier from the city's suburbs, said the situation scared her and that she wanted peace.

The attack came as Ukraine has increased long-range drone strikes on Russian energy, military and logistics sites. Kyiv describes the strikes as "long-range sanctions" and says they are justified retaliation for Russia's nightly drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities.

Hours after the Wildberries strikes, reporters heard blasts over Kyiv after Ukrainian authorities warned of incoming Russian missiles. The source described the attack as a rare attempted daytime strike on the Ukrainian capital.

Wildberries sites were also hit last weekend, when eight night-shift workers were killed and one of the company's main warehouses outside Moscow burned down. Hundreds of small businesses lost inventories in that strike.

Russian ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv have killed dozens in recent weeks and damaged apartment buildings. Ukraine says its retaliatory campaign has caused nationwide fuel shortages in Russia and hurt Moscow's finances for the war.

US President Donald Trump has appeared to support Ukraine's counter-attacks on Russia, calling the strikes "an escalation that can lead to an end". The source said Washington's efforts to mediate a peace deal have largely stalled while its own war on Iran continues.

The United Nations has reported a rise in civilian deaths in 2026, saying June was the deadliest month since mid-2022. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022, though there is no precise toll and neither side routinely gives its losses.