Ukrainian drone strikes killed at least two people in regions along Russia’s Volga river overnight, hitting a warehouse belonging to Wildberries, the country’s largest online retailer, regional officials said Sunday.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 635 Ukrainian drones during the same period, a number that shows the scale of the aerial campaign.
Wildberries warehouse hit in Samara region
A drone struck a Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region, roughly 800 kilometers from Ukraine’s closest held territory, according to Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev. He said authorities were still assessing whether anyone was injured or killed in the attack.
The company, often called Russia’s answer to Amazon, has seen about a dozen of its sites targeted since mid-July. Ukrainian officials claim some of these facilities distribute components used in drone production and navigation equipment, though the Kremlin denies the accusation.
Earlier strikes on July 18 killed at least eight workers at Wildberries locations—seven in Kotovsk and one in Elektrostal—and injured dozens more. The attacks have damaged an estimated 10-15% of the company’s logistics capacity, affecting sites near St. Petersburg, Tambov, Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg, and Crimea.
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For Ukrainians, the strikes are less about retail disruption than about choking the supply chains that feed Russia’s war machine. Every warehouse taken offline forces Moscow to reroute goods, adding cost and delay to an economy already stretched thin by sanctions and military spending. It’s a slow burn, but one that could compound over months.
Two killed in Engels, civil infrastructure damaged
A separate strike on a residential building in the Saratov region killed two people in the city of Engels, Governor Roman Busargin said. Civil infrastructure was also damaged in both Engels and the nearby city of Saratov.
Engels hosts a military airbase, while Saratov is home to a major oil refinery. Both cities have been frequent targets of Ukrainian attacks in recent years.
Ukraine has not commented on the latest strikes. Its forces have increasingly focused on economic and energy targets deep inside Russia, aiming to weaken Moscow’s ability to sustain its war effort.
The overnight attacks mark another escalation in Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign, which has expanded beyond military sites to include logistics hubs, refineries, and other critical infrastructure. Russia’s ability to intercept hundreds of drones in a single night suggests both sides are locked in a high-stakes contest of attrition, with civilians caught in the middle.
