Skip to main content
On Air Now
Listen Now

1pm to 4pm

Listen Now

1pm to 4pm

Vast plume of smoke as 'Russia's Amazon' warehouse set on fire in Ukrainian drone attack

Ukraine has attacked about a dozen Wildberries sites since July 18 in an attempt to disrupt the operations of the company

Share

By Rebecca Henrys

Vast plumes of smoke visible for miles around bellowed into the sky after Ukrainian drones struck a vast warehouse belonging to Russian retailer Wildberries.

Listen to this article

Loading audio...

The company, whose warehouses have been systematically targeted by Ukraine in recent weeks, said firefighters were working at the scene of the latest blaze in the Vladimir region.

It said logistics operations had been rerouted to other facilities to ensure deliveries and shipments continued as usual.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said that the warehouses were "involved in providing the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment and other gear".

Alexander Avdeyev, the regional governor, said a young man had received a non-life-threatening head wound in the attack and was being taken to hospital. A woman who lived nearby had also suffered what he described as minor injuries to one of her legs

Ukraine has attacked about a dozen Wildberries sites since July 18 in an attempt to disrupt the operations of the company, a linchpin of the consumer economy often described as Russia's version of Amazon.

Read more: Trump says new talks to begin with Iran on Monday after president urged to call off strikes

Read more: Reform wants to launch 'largest military operation in the English Channel since World War Two' to stop small boats

A woman smokes while watching the burning warehouse of the Russian online retailer Wildberries in the Utkina Zavod area, near the village of Novosaratovka, after it caught fire following a drone attack
A woman smokes while watching the burning warehouse of the Russian online retailer Wildberries in the Utkina Zavod area, near the village of Novosaratovka, after it caught fire following a drone attack. Picture: Stringer/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire

Ukraine also attacked a Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region on Sunday, around 800 km (500 miles) from Ukraine's most advanced military positions, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said.

Fedorishchev said there were no casualties and that a fire that broke out as a result of the attack was being put out.

Ukrainian forces have been hitting deeper inside Russia as they expand strikes on economic and energy targets, aiming to undermine Russia's ability to wage its more than four-year-old war in Ukraine.

Smoke billows into the sky following Ukrainian drone strikes on warehouses of Russia's online retailer Wildberries, in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 24, 2026
Smoke billows into the sky following Ukrainian drone strikes on warehouses of Russia's online retailer Wildberries, in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 24, 2026. Picture: UGC via AP

A strike on a residential building in the neighbouring Saratov region killed two people in the city of Engels, Governor Roman Busargin said.

Civil infrastructure was damaged both in Engels and in the city of Saratov, Busargin said.

Both Saratov city, home to a major oil refinery, and Engels, home to a military airbase, have come under repeated Ukrainian attack in recent years.

Ukraine's military said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces attacked the Saratov refinery and the Engels airbase, sparking fires at both facilities. It said its forces also struck an oil depot in the western Kaluga region.

Three people were killed and two injured in a drone attack on the Udmurtia region of Russia, acting governor Olga Abramova said.

In the border region of Belgorod, three people were killed and five injured in Ukrainian strikes, the local task force reported.

The governor of Russia's Bashkortostan region, Radiy Khabirov, said air defence units repelled a massive drone attack on industrial facilities.

One of the drones was shot down over the industrial area of the regional capital of Ufa and a fire was being put out, Khabirov said.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces struck infrastructure and two vessels with military cargo in the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv, as well as a vessel carrying military supplies in the Black Sea.

In the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said Russian-launched glide bombs killed one person and injured 21.