Russia’s next war target is online shopping, as Ozon warehouses burn and Moscow grabs new powers
Ukrainian strikes hit more Ozon sites, sending shares down and prompting new Kremlin powers over firms tied to key facilities.
Russia’s vast online shopping network has been pulled further into the war after Ukrainian drone strikes hit more facilities linked to Ozon, one of the country’s biggest retailers. As fires broke out and operations were halted, the Kremlin unveiled powers that could let the state take control of companies judged to have failed to protect important sites.
Six Ozon facilities were targeted within three days
Ozon, Russia’s second-largest online retailer after Wildberries, said four more of its warehouses were targeted in southern Russia, taking the total number of its facilities hit within three days to six. The company’s shares fell by almost 30% on Monday after the latest attacks were disclosed.
According to the company, a logistics hub in Makhachkala, in Dagestan, caught fire and stopped operating after a drone strike in which "several people" were injured. Another Ozon site was on fire in Enem, on the outskirts of Krasnodar. Workers were also evacuated from warehouses that came under attack in Adygeysk, in the Adygeya region, and in Nevinnomyssk, in the Stavropol region.
Those incidents followed earlier drone strikes that halted work at an Ozon logistics centre in the Samara region and another in the Orenburg region. The attacks add to pressure on a retail logistics sector that has already been shaken by earlier strikes on Wildberries, a rival whose warehousing network has also been hit.
The Kremlin is now giving itself the option to step in
As the attacks spread from oil facilities to transport and retail logistics, Vladimir Putin has signed off on special powers that would allow the Russian state to take charge of companies connected to infrastructure it considers essential.
Under the presidential decree, the state could seize physical and financial assets and assume formal ownership rights if the entities responsible for facilities are judged to have failed to protect them and to have been too slow to repair them after an attack. The measure applies to fuel, energy, industrial, communications, transport and logistics facilities, along with other sites regarded as critical to security and economic stability.
That means companies linked to the latest attacks, including Ozon and Wildberries, could fall into the Kremlin’s sights if officials decide their protection has been inadequate. Before the most recent Ozon strikes, Putin had already promised state help to restore warehouses "at a new technological level" and asked the government to prepare a support programme for the sector.
There is also a financial gap between the two e-commerce groups. Financial analysts said Wildberries, while privately owned, has the backing of state-owned bank VTB. Ozon’s main shareholder, AFK Sistema, has a large debt burden and is seen as less likely to provide major support. On 24 July, the European Union imposed sanctions on the financial units of both Ozon and Wildberries.
The warehouse strikes sit inside a wider campaign
The pressure on Ozon is part of a broader wave of Ukrainian attacks on Russian infrastructure and military assets. Ukraine’s drone forces commander, Robert Brovdi, said on Monday that Ukrainian forces struck a Russian Mig-29 fighter jet and two Russian vessels in the Black Sea, one a tanker and the other a bulk carrier. He said it was the third Russian warplane hit in two days.
Ukraine’s general staff also said its military struck a Russian military plant at Kamensky, in the Rostov region, causing a fire. The plant produces solid rocket fuel for Russian weapons.
Energy facilities have also been affected. Two industry sources said the Perm oil refinery, Russia’s seventh-largest by volume, shut down after a Ukrainian drone attack on 21 August. Its primary CDU-4 unit, which accounts for almost 40% of the refinery’s capacity, stopped working that day, and repair work could take between one and two weeks. Another main refining unit, CDU-5, which accounts for 34% of capacity, has been idle since a 29 July drone attack. Lukoil, which controls the refinery, did not reply to a request for comment.
Taken together, the strikes show how targets far beyond the battlefield are being drawn into the war. Warehouses that handle everyday online orders are now being hit alongside refineries, ships and military production sites, and Moscow is responding not only with repairs and support promises, but with new powers to move directly into the companies behind them.
