Ukraine hits Ozon logistics hubs in expanded Russia drone campaign
Developed over time first seen 2 months ago
Ukraine marked its Independence Day weekend with an expanded drone campaign against Russian e-commerce infrastructure, striking three logistics hubs belonging to Ozon, Russia's second-largest online retailer, while also attempting a strike on a military cosmodrome. Fires broke out at Ozon warehouses in Krasnodar and Makhachkala, with several people reported wounded in Makhachkala, while sites in Adygeysk and Nevinnomyssk were evacuated as a precaution and suffered no casualties or damage. Ukraine's defence ministry said the action, spanning three continuous days, followed earlier strikes on 15 hubs belonging to market leader Wildberries, which Kyiv accuses of supplying components to the Russian military; separately, NATO scrambled Romanian F-16s after a suspected Russian drone crossed into its airspace via Moldova.
The campaign coincided with new UK prime minister Andy Burnham's first foreign trip to Kyiv, where he pledged continued British backing and confirmed that UK components for the long-range Storm Shadow/Scalp missile system could now be shared with Ukraine for domestic production. Burnham joined French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Council chief António Costa for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky under the Coalition of the Willing. Russia responded by recalling its ambassador from London, Andrey Kelin, after seven years in post, declaring relations with Britain at "an unprecedentedly low level" and warning of consequences over UK-linked drones striking deep into Russian territory. The warehouse strikes, seen as easier targets than defended military sites, have reportedly already cost Russia billions of dollars.
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In short
- Ukraine struck three Ozon warehouses over its Independence Day weekend
- New PM Andy Burnham visited Kyiv, pledged missile-tech support to Ukraine
- Russia recalled its UK ambassador amid worsening diplomatic relations
How this story developed
- 2 months ago Fuller reporting on the same overnight assault showed Ukraine's drones had struck Ozon warehouses across four regions, Krasnodar, Dagestan, Stavropol and Adygea, rather than three sites as first reported, with the wider damage and worker injuries emerging alongside continued British diplomatic engagement in Kyiv.
- 2 months ago Ukraine widened its drone campaign against Russian e-commerce infrastructure by hitting three Ozon logistics hubs over Independence Day weekend, sparking fires and injuries in Krasnodar and Makhachkala, as new UK prime minister Andy Burnham made his first trip to Kyiv and Russia recalled its ambassador to London.
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The case for
Supporters of Ukraine's campaign argue that Wildberries and Ozon hubs are legitimate military targets once evidence shows they handle components feeding Russia's war machine, making them dual-use infrastructure rather than purely civilian sites. They contend that degrading such logistics networks weakens Russia's ability to sustain its invasion without striking population centres directly, and that advance evacuations at some sites show an effort to limit casualties while still achieving military effect. For this view, allowing ambiguous commercial cover to shield military supply chains would hand Russia an unearned sanctuary in a war it started.
The case against
Critics of the strikes argue that hitting major retail logistics hubs blurs the line between military and civilian infrastructure, risking harm to warehouse workers and local residents who have no direct role in arms supply, as the injuries reported in Makhachkala illustrate. They worry that expanding targets from one e-commerce firm to a second normalises attacks on ordinary economic infrastructure, inviting reciprocal strikes on Ukrainian civilian logistics and further escalating a war already spilling into NATO airspace. They also caution that the military-supply justification rests on Kyiv's own assertions, which deserve scrutiny before civilian-adjacent sites are treated as legitimate targets.
Explained simply
Ukraine's use of long-range drones against targets deep inside Russia has grown since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, moving beyond purely military sites to infrastructure Kyiv says supports the war effort. Ozon and Wildberries are Russia's two biggest online retail and delivery companies, similar in scale to Amazon, with vast warehouse networks across the country. Ukraine's military says some of this logistics infrastructure is used to move components for weapons and drones, which is why it has become a target.
The story also intersects with Western support for Ukraine. Andy Burnham recently became UK prime minister, and his visit to Kyiv is being watched as an early signal of how his government will handle military backing for Ukraine, including missile technology sharing. Diplomatic ties between London and Moscow have been strained for some time over Britain's role in helping Ukraine strike targets inside Russia, and Russia recalling its ambassador marks a further downturn.
The wider region remains on edge because the conflict occasionally spills beyond Ukraine's borders, for instance through drones straying into neighbouring NATO countries such as Romania. NATO members monitor and respond to such incidents closely, since any incursion into alliance airspace raises concerns about the risk of the war widening.
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