Putin Orders State Support to Rebuild Russian Warehouses Hit by Ukrainian Strikes

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to launch a programme to rebuild commercial warehouses damaged or destroyed by Ukrainian drone strikes, bringing the consequences of Ukraine’s long-range campaign deeper into Russia’s domestic economy.

The order follows weeks of attacks on logistics infrastructure belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer. Since July 18, at least two dozen Wildberries warehouses have been targeted, with fires and explosions destroying a significant share of the company’s storage capacity. Putin did not name Wildberries directly, but his instructions were issued as the Kremlin addressed the damage to commercial logistics facilities.

Putin described the damage as serious but insisted that the strikes had not created “critical consequences” for the Russian economy. At the same time, the decision to involve the government in rebuilding the facilities indicates that Moscow is treating the disruption as more than a temporary problem for individual businesses.

From military targets to economic infrastructure

The Wildberries campaign has become one of the clearest examples of Ukraine’s expanding ability to strike infrastructure far beyond the front line.

The company operates one of Russia’s largest logistics networks, connecting hundreds of thousands of sellers with consumers across the country. Its warehouses are concentrated in large facilities that allow goods to be stored and distributed efficiently, but that same concentration creates vulnerabilities when individual hubs are hit.

By mid-August, Ukrainian forces had struck seven of Wildberries’ ten largest logistics centres, including a 250,000-square-metre facility in Podolsk in the Moscow region. The attacks have forced the company to reorganise its logistics chains and continue operating with substantially reduced capacity.

The campaign also demonstrates how the distinction between civilian and military infrastructure is becoming increasingly blurred. Ukrainian authorities have accused Wildberries of supplying the Russian military with dual-use goods, including drone components and navigation equipment. The company’s logistics network has consequently become part of Kyiv’s broader effort to disrupt systems that can support Russia’s war economy.

The cost extends beyond destroyed buildings

The immediate damage is concentrated in warehouses, but the economic consequences spread through the businesses that depend on them.

A destroyed logistics centre can mean lost inventory, delayed deliveries and additional transportation and storage costs. For smaller retailers operating through Wildberries, the loss of goods stored inside a warehouse can threaten their ability to continue operating.

The financial pressure on the company had already become significant before Putin’s latest order. By early August, Ukrainian strikes had destroyed at least 1.18 million square metres of Wildberries warehouse space — roughly one-fifth of its total capacity at the time. Insurance costs for goods stored in the facilities were also rising as the risk of further strikes increased.

This creates a problem Moscow cannot solve simply by replacing damaged buildings. New warehouses require capital, protection and functioning logistics routes. They also remain vulnerable if Russia cannot provide sufficient air defence across the enormous area of its territory.

A new burden for the Russian state

The Kremlin has spent much of the war trying to preserve the appearance that Russia’s economy can absorb the costs of conflict without major disruption to everyday life. The warehouse strikes challenge that model in a particularly visible way.

Retail logistics are part of ordinary economic life. Unlike a military facility, a destroyed warehouse immediately affects companies, workers, deliveries and consumers. The disruption therefore has the potential to make the consequences of the war more tangible inside Russia.

Putin’s response effectively transfers part of that risk from private companies to the state. Moscow will now have to consider not only how to rebuild damaged infrastructure but also how to protect it from subsequent attacks.

That creates a potentially expensive cycle: Ukraine strikes a logistics hub, businesses absorb immediate losses, the Russian state helps finance reconstruction, and the replacement infrastructure must then be protected against another round of attacks.

Ukraine is testing the limits of Russia’s rear

The significance of the campaign lies less in any individual warehouse than in the geography of the attacks.

Ukrainian drones have reached logistics facilities in the Moscow region and as far east as Yekaterinburg, demonstrating that Russia’s vast rear area can no longer be treated as a secure economic zone. The repeated strikes are forcing Moscow to spread its defensive resources across a growing number of potential targets.

This is precisely where the economic and military dimensions of the campaign intersect. Russia needs its logistics infrastructure to support both civilian consumption and the wider war economy. Ukraine does not need to destroy that system entirely to impose costs on it. Repeated disruption, rising insurance and reconstruction expenses, logistical delays and pressure on businesses can gradually make the system more expensive and less efficient.