Ukraine drone attack hits ‘Russia’s Amazon’ warehouse

SAINT PETERSBURG: Ukrainian drones hit a warehouse for a Russian e-commerce giant near Saint Petersburg early Friday, triggering a fire that sent smoke pouring over the historic city, according to local officials and an AFP reporter.

Kyiv has targeted Saint Petersburg as it steps up long-range drone strikes on Russian energy, military and logistics sites in recent weeks, calling the attacks justified retribution for Moscow’s nightly drone and missile barrages of its cities.

Russia’s defense ministry said its forces shot down some 571 drones overnight over more than a dozen regions and Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.

In Saint Petersburg, an AFP reporter saw grey smoke rising into the morning sky over high-rise residential buildings in the city, President Vladimir Putin’s hometown that is more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The local governor reported that a warehouse for Wildberries — Russia’s largest online retailer often referred to as “Russia’s Amazon” — was on fire after the strike.

“Three people were wounded,” Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the surrounding Leningrad region said on social media.

It was the third overnight attack by Ukraine on Wildberries’ sites in the past week.

Last weekend, eight night-shift workers were killed in attacks on Wildberries sites that saw one of the company’s main warehouses outside Moscow burn to the ground.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky alleged after the first attack that the facilities were used to “supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment.”

Kyiv calls its campaign “long-range sanctions,” saying the attacks are justified retribution for Russia’s nightly drone and missile barrages of its cities since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

The campaign has triggered nationwide fuel shortages and, Kyiv says, dented Russia’s financial war chest.