Ozon warehouses hit in consecutive drone attacks as Ukraine campaign expands
Ukrainian drones hit warehouses belonging to Russian e-commerce giant Ozon on consecutive days, with the company reporting a fire at a logistics centre in the Krasnodar region on August 24, according to The Straits Times. Ozon, Russia's second-largest online marketplace, said a "major fire" was burning at one of its facilities in the southern Krasnodar region after a drone attack, adding that all systems operated as designed, staff were evacuated, and there were preliminarily no casualties.
On August 23, Ozon reported a fire at its logistics hub in the central Orenburg region after a drone attack, with operations at the warehouse currently suspended, as covered by The Straits Times. The Orenburg region's governor, Yevgeny Solntsev, said two industrial facilities were hit by drone debris, including a warehouse owned by Ozon, and that the defence ministry had repelled six drones over the region with no injuries, according to a Reuters report carried by The Straits Times. Ozon said it evacuated more than 300 people and halted work at its Orenburg logistics centre.
The strikes came a day after an Ozon centre in the Samara region was hit in a drone attack on August 22. TASS reported that four people were injured in the attack on an Ozon logistics center in the Samara Region, with one person in critical condition after jumping out of a second-floor window and undergoing surgery. An emergencies' spokesman told TASS that doctors were operating on the injured person. More than 500 employees were evacuated from the Samara warehouse, Ozon said on its Max channel, according to TASS. The company said a fire ensued as a result of the attack and that there were victims, without specifying a number. Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev reported that several people were injured in a massive drone attack on the region and that victims were being provided medical care, TASS noted.
The Samara Region came under a large-scale drone attack overnight when dozens of drones were downed, with damage to an industrial site and a hit in an Ozon logistics facility registered, Governor Fedorishchev said, as reported by TASS. Russia's defence ministry said it downed 328 Ukrainian drones overnight, according to both TASS and a Reuters report.
Ukraine's defence ministry on August 22 said it was launching a new campaign targeting Ozon after Ukrainian units hit the 15 largest logistics hubs of Wildberries, Russia's top online retailer, The Straits Times reported. The statement said: "After Ukrainian units hit the 15 largest logistics hubs of Wildberries, it is now Ozon's turn." A logistics centre next to an Ozon facility on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg was also hit, The Straits Times added.
The attacks on Ozon and Wildberries warehouses, which are typically easier to reach than heavily defended military installations, have delivered economic losses worth billions of dollars, with several facilities packed with flammable products destroyed, The Straits Times reported. Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 19 pledged support for Wildberries amid the strikes, saying the government would help rebuild logistics hubs hit by Ukrainian attacks. Russia has railed at attacks on its civilian infrastructure more than four years into its full-scale offensive on Ukraine, The Straits Times noted.
Ozon and Wildberries have both been dubbed "Russia's Amazon" due to their control over a huge swath of the fast-growing e-commerce sector, with Ozon's pick-up points and delivery boxes ubiquitous across the country, according to The Straits Times.