Hello!

This is Svetlana Bronnikova from the independent media outlet 7x7. Over the six days beginning on July 18, Ukrainian drones attacked four major Wildberries logistics centers in Kotovsk, Elektrostal, Krasnodar, and Nevinnomyssk. While Ukraine says the warehouses are part of the Russian military's supply chain and Russian authorities deny this, thousands of small business owners and warehouse workers have found themselves at the center of the crisis. Sellers have lost inventory worth billions of rubles and have no idea whether they will receive any compensation, while warehouse employees have been left without basic labor protections. 

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

"Everything I Had Burned Down": The Attacks and Their Human Cost

The scale of the attacks became clear when Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim confirmed strikes on the company's southern logistics centers in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk, just days after similar attacks on facilities in Kotovsk and Elektrostal. According to preliminary estimates by the analytical agency Data Insight, sellers' losses at the warehouses in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk alone could amount to between 100 and 120 billion rubles if the facilities had been operating at full capacity. Wildberries Group's own losses, including destroyed buildings and equipment as well as disruptions to logistics, are expected to be even higher.

Behind the numbers are human tragedies. Dozens of people were injured in the attacks. In Kotovsk (Tambov Oblast), seven people were killed and 23 hospitalized. In Elektrostal and Noginsk (Moscow Oblast), 61 people were injured. In Krasnodar, three people remain hospitalized, while one young woman died from her injuries. In Nevinnomyssk (Stavropol Krai), one person was hospitalized.

Tatyana Kim promised payments of 2 million rubles to the families of those killed and 1 million rubles to those seriously injured. However, there are no guarantees of compensation for sellers who have lost their entire businesses.

Social media has been flooded with posts from business owners, many of whom took out loans to purchase inventory and now have no idea how they will pay taxes or support themselves.

"I'm raising my child on my own. Everything I had fucking burned down. <…> First my inventory burned at the warehouse in Elektrostal, and now all of my main inventory has burned in Krasnodar," says former Dom-2 participant Viktoria Komissarova through tears in a video.

"Last summer, I worked so hard that I had several breakdowns because I didn't even have time to wash my hair. I was saving every penny to build my own brand and launch my products. And now everything has gone to shit. Once again, it's not your fault. Once again, overnight, everything burns down for some incomprehensible reason..." another business owner laments.

Natalia Ryzhikova, a designer from Ulyanovsk, said she lost most of her inventory across three logistics centers in just two days. In Elektrostal alone, products worth 1.2 million rubles were destroyed.

"Everything burned down. There'll be no compensation. You can't insure against this, and they won't even let us recover the inventory that survived."

"Legally Elegant": Terms of Service, Court Battles, and Workers Left Unprotected

Lawyers and economists agree that the main burden of the disaster will fall on small businesses and rank-and-file workers.

Lawyer Kaloy Akhilgov pointed to one important detail: 11 days before the attacks, Wildberries updated its terms of service, adding a clause exempting the marketplace from paying compensation in the event of drone attacks.

"Legally elegant. But not beyond dispute. The marketplace holds your inventory as a professional custodian. That means you do not have to prove it was at fault. It has to prove that the loss resulted from force majeure," Akhilgov wrote, urging sellers to stand up for their rights.

However, not everyone is prepared to take the company to court. Representatives of the Telegram channel Wildberries: The Truth from Employees told 7x7 that those affected and the relatives of those killed are still in deep shock and are not yet thinking about legal action against the company.

The situation is further complicated by the way Wildberries hires its workforce. The company widely relies on civil-law contracts instead of employment contracts, effectively using them to replace regular employment relationships. Because these agreements are governed by civil rather than labor law, workers are deprived of the protections guaranteed under Russia's Labor Code. To obtain the compensation they are legally entitled to, workers or their families would first have to convince a court that an employment relationship actually existed. Labor rights advocates have promised to provide those affected with free legal assistance.

Why Neither the State nor Wildberries Is Rushing to Help

Economist Nikolay Kulbaka says businesses have virtually no bargaining power in their dealings with the state.

"There has never been any real agreement between business and the state. Businesses have virtually no bargaining power. The state uses business to serve its own interests. Even strategically important industries receive little real support: we see no meaningful assistance for the oil sector, while the coal industry is in deep crisis. That is why small businesses affected by the war are unlikely to receive much help. At best, they may get some tax relief."

At the same time, the marketplace's owner, Tatyana Kim, has enough resources to rebuild the company thanks to her ties with major business groups, the expert argues. The same, however, cannot be said for ordinary sellers.

Irina, a sales analytics specialist from Krasnodar, believes the current situation has become a dead end for everyone involved in the marketplace ecosystem.

Sellers have lost their inventory and are unable to repay the loans they took out to finance their businesses. For individual entrepreneurs and the self-employed, obtaining new loans has become extremely difficult because of high interest rates and banks' risk assessments.

Wildberries itself operates on a low-margin business model that relies on keeping logistics costs as low as possible. The systematic destruction of its warehouses could result in enormous losses for the company. At the same time, the marketplace has never positioned itself as a socially responsible company. As a monopoly, it has little incentive to protect its reputation by paying out large-scale compensation.

The attacks are also expected to deal a heavy blow to regional economies. The logistics center in Krasnodar, for example, provided around 5,000 to 6,000 jobs, with plans to expand to 8,000. The network of pickup points, independent sellers, and self-employed workers that depended on the facility generated a significant share of local tax revenue. Losing these facilities would leave a major hole in regional budgets.