Ukraine has changed the tactics of long-range strikes on Russian territory, reorienting attacks from oil infrastructure to the logistics complexes of Russia's largest market Wildberries. The new campaign is designed not only to inflict economic damage, but also to demonstrate to Russians that the war is increasingly affecting each of them, writes The Telegraph.
The publication notes that after a series of attacks on oil depots and oil refineries, Ukrainian drones have begun striking the warehouses of the company, often called the Russian equivalent of Amazon.
In recent days, at least seven of Wildberries' facilities in Krasnodar, Nevinnomyssk, near Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tver and in occupied Simferopol, as well as several warehouses of other e-commerce operators, have been hit. This is estimated to have resulted in the loss of approximately 15% of the company's total warehouse space.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called Wildberries' terminals a legitimate military target, as they could be used to deliver goods to the Russian army, and the platform sells radios, body armor, and electronic components, although Russian authorities and the company deny these allegations.
The psychological effect of the strikes on these sites is no less important, however. The head of the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdy, call sign ''Magyar'' explained their main goal by saying that it was necessary to destroy the 'illusion of a comfortable, well-fed peaceful life enjoyed by the docile biomass of the aggressor country.'
The consequences of the strikes have already been felt by thousands of Russian entrepreneurs after marketplaces removed the clause for compensation for damage from drones. The publication quotes the words of one of the Russian traders who lost tens of millions of rubles of goods in burnt warehouses:
''Personally, I am on the verge of bankruptcy''.
According to estimates by analyst Sergey Semko from the research agency Data Insight, only two of the damaged warehouses contained goods worth between 1.92 and 3.01 billion US dollars, and the restoration of the complexes will cost Russians up to 460 million dollars.
According to The Telegraph, the destruction of infrastructure that affects the daily lives of Russians deprives the population of indifference to the conflict. Political analyst and former Putin speechwriter Abbas Galyamov commented on the situation to the publication.
''Before the war, it was a peripheral phenomenon that did not directly affect the lives of ordinary Russians. Now it manifests itself in the form of fuel shortages and disruptions to online shopping. This negative momentum for the Russian authorities undermines the picture painted by propaganda. [The Ukrainian strikes] are strengthening anti-war sentiment. People are rallying around the government that is winning, not around the one that is losing,'' believes Galyamov.