Ukraine’s strikes on Russia’s Wildberries ‘aren’t about the front line’

Many have compared Wildberries , Russia’s largest online retailer, to Amazon, and some claim that, as in the case of the US company, shopping on its website or app feels addictive.

“I know many people that are really addicted to it,” Aleksandra, an accountant and mother in the Urals Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest, told Al Jazeera, withholding her last name for security purposes. “They add things to their basket, wait for discounts, make up their minds about what to buy, then decide to buy it again.”

She found the site particularly useful while briefly living in the countryside, where otherwise she would have had to travel to the nearest town for shopping.

Mere hours after being interviewed by Al Jazeera, Ukrainian drones hit a Wildberries warehouse in Yekaterinburg, 2,087km (1,297 miles) from the Ukrainian border. Online videos showed two plumes of grey smoke rising from the roof early Friday amid gunfire from security guards trying to down the incoming drones.

The company said that “orders were temporarily limited” in Yekaterinburg, and regional Governor Denis Pasler said none of its 800 employees there was hurt during an evacuation.

As Kyiv attempts to bring the war home to Russia, the company has become a frequent Ukrainian target.

Last week’s attack did not look as devastating as two dozen earlier drone strikes that have fully or partially destroyed at least 12 warehouses since mid-July, killing 13 employees and wounding dozens. A Wildberries logistical hub on the outskirts of Voronezh is the latest site to have come under fire earlier this week.

According to Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s Bremen University, “Strikes on Wildberries aren’t about the front line, but about Kyiv’s conception of how Russia’s economy functions and what social and political consequences of these strikes are.”