Ukraine's Drone Barrage Kills Civilians, Hits Another Wildberries Depot in Russia

What the Overnight Drone Exchanges Did to Both Countries

Ukraine extended its long-range drone campaign deep into Russia overnight, killing at least nine people and setting another Wildberries distribution warehouse on fire, according to Russian regional officials. The Russian Defence Ministry said air defences shot down 635 Ukrainian drones, including over Crimea and the Black and Azov Seas, but did not say how many were launched or how many struck their targets. Ukraine's air force, meanwhile, reported that Russia launched 133 drones of its own overnight, 24 of which hit objectives.

The latest Wildberries fire broke out at a depot in the Samara region, roughly 800 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, after a drone strike. Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said there were no casualties. The attacks on Wildberries, Russia's largest online marketplace, date back to 18 July, when facilities in Elektrostal, east of Moscow, and the Tambov region were first hit. Since then, warehouses in western and southern Russia and in Russian-occupied Crimea have also been struck, with at least nine people killed and dozens wounded.

In the Saratov region, Governor Roman Busargin said two people died when a drone hit a residential building in Engels, and that civil infrastructure in Engels and Saratov was damaged. Engels hosts a Russian military air base, and Saratov is home to a major oil refinery. In Bashkortostan, Governor Radiy Khabirov said air defence repelled a large attack on 'industrial facilities' in Ufa and that a fire was being put out, without specifying what was hit. In the Udmurtia republic, acting head Olga Abramova reported three civilians killed and two wounded, saying two drones were shot down.

On the Ukrainian side, local officials reported at least two deaths from Russian strikes on Sunday: one in an attack with a guided bomb on a residential building in Zaporizhzhia and one in an attack that also set a postal terminal ablaze on the outskirts of Kharkiv.

Why Kyiv Keeps Targeting Wildberries and Fuel Infrastructure

Wildberries as a strategic target

Kyiv's campaign has explicitly aimed at 'undermining Moscow's war effort, hurting its economy and making the population feel the consequences of the full-scale invasion,' and the pattern of strikes fits that description. Wildberries is the backbone of Russian e-commerce; hitting more than a dozen of its depots in under two weeks disrupts distribution nationwide and turns a consumer brand into a direct casualty of the war. The latest Samara warehouse, like the earlier Elektrostal and Tambov facilities, is unlikely to have any military value in itself. This looks like an economic-warfare choice designed to make the war visible in ordinary commercial life, with knock-on effects on delivery times and operating costs that Wildberries and its sellers will have to absorb. This is interpretation based on the stated campaign and the target pattern; damage and disruption figures remain unverified.

What the air-defence numbers do and do not tell us

Moscow's claim that 635 drones were intercepted overnight is striking, but without a figure for how many were launched it cannot measure the success of the raid. The fact that strikes still reached Saratov, Ufa and Udmurtia, some of them more than 800 kilometres from Ukraine, suggests a growing deep-strike capability. Ukraine's own figure, 133 Russian drones launched and 24 impacts, similarly describes a nightly exchange that is attritional for both sides: Russia absorbs drones, Ukraine absorbs drones, and each side counts debris and damage differently. For outside observers, the numbers are useful mainly as an indication of scale, not as a reliable scorecard.

The civilian cost on both sides

Deaths in Russian regions, two in Saratov and three in Udmurtia, and damage to civilian infrastructure in Engels and Saratov show the humanitarian price of the campaign, even when the intended targets may be military or industrial. On the Ukrainian side, Russian strikes killed at least two people in Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv on Sunday. The repeated targeting of Engels, home to a strategic bomber base, and Saratov's refinery suggests Kyiv is also probing Russia's military and energy infrastructure. None of these claims has been independently verified, and both governments have incentives to frame the numbers in their favour.

What to Watch After the Wildberries Attacks

For businesses and analysts tracking the war's economic fallout, the Wildberries strikes are a practical indicator worth monitoring:

• Track further Wildberries depot attacks: more than a dozen warehouses have been hit since 18 July, starting with Elektrostal and Tambov and now including Samara, where a new fire broke out at the retailer's distribution hub.
• Treat fuel and logistics infrastructure as exposed: the Saratov refinery and Engels air base, both repeatedly targeted, sit in a region where civilian infrastructure has also been damaged.
• Read Russian air-defence numbers cautiously: Moscow says 635 drones were intercepted but does not say how many were launched or reached targets, so official counts cannot prove the campaign's effectiveness.
• Watch regional governors' statements for operational clues: Samara's governor reported no casualties from the warehouse fire, while Ufa's governor did not specify which industrial facilities were struck or damaged.