In brief
Ukrainian drones hit three of Russia’s largest online‑retail warehouses, sparking fires in Dagestan, Krasnodar, and Stavropol and injuring several workers. Ozon’s shares slipped 12% on the Moscow Exchange, while its major shareholder AFK Sistema fell 13%. The attacks are part of a wider series of Ukrainian strikes targeting key economic sites, including the rival Wildberries. Russia denies the stores supply military goods and says it will resist Ukrainian “pandora’s box.” The Kremlin has offered to work with businesses for relief, but no immediate aid was announced.
Ukrainian drones strike Ozon warehouses in southern Russia
In the early hours of Monday, Ozon’s logistics facilities in the southern regions of Krasnodar, Dagestan, Stavropol and Adygea were targeted by a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks that left several warehouses on fire, sparking concern across the region.
Reports from Ozon say the Makhachkala site in Dagestan suffered a fire that began around 05:00 local time (02:00 GMT), while a major blaze erupted at another centre in Krasnodar, some 700 km east of Dagestan. Three children were killed at the Krasnodar facility and six were taken to hospital, according to Russia’s children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova‑Belova.
Ozon’s shares fell up to 12% on the Moscow Exchange, while the stock of its major shareholder, private‑equity firm AFK Sistema, dropped almost 13%. The company’s workers in Adygeysk and Nevinnomyssk have been evacuated, and videos posted on social media show a drone hitting a warehouse in the Orenburg region and large plumes of smoke rising from the Dagestan store.
This attack follows a late‑night strike on Ozon’s site in the Samara region and is part of a broader Ukrainian strategy that has also targeted the country’s biggest online retailer, Wildberries, since the war began in 2022. Ukraine’s defence ministry says the strikes on dual‑use storage facilities “complicate the enemy’s logistics” and hurt the Russian economy overall.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin declared that Ukraine had opened a “Pandora’s box” by striking economic targets and warned that Moscow would hit back at Kyiv’s most sensitive economic sectors. Despite the Kremlin’s pledge to work with business representatives, the government has declined to offer an immediate state subsidy to Ozon.
The attacks are bringing the war “closer to ordinary Russians,” observers say, as Ozon and Wildberries are key platforms for 85‑90% of the nation’s economically active population. While the companies serve mainly as marketplaces, the damage from these strikes is borne by thousands of independent sellers and the Russian economy at large.
