Drone Attacks on Wildberries Cost Ural Businessmen Millions

Entrepreneurs from Chelyabinsk lost products worth millions after Ukrainian drone attacks on Wildberries warehouses in Elektrostal and Kotovsk on July 18. They fear they will not be able to compensate for the damage despite the company«s public promises. One of the sellers told 74.RU in detail about the situation.

Olga owns a brand of children«s, men»s and women«s clothing. Their peak season is the end of summer — the autumn collection is still in production, so only leftovers were in the warehouses. Nevertheless, most of it was in Elektrostal, Moscow region.

«Elektrostal is generally one of the key warehouses, with the fastest delivery time, probably,» Olga explained. «We had about 300 units of goods there, and very little in Kotovsk. But in Chelyabinsk there are many large sellers, some had six thousand units in Elektrostal.»

She estimated her losses at one million rubles ($11,100). Another interlocutor of 74.RU, Olesya, owner of a baby clothing brand, reported that she lost about 3.5 million rubles ($38,900).

«Total losses amounted to 1,650,000 rubles ($18,300). This warehouse was one of the main ones,» said entrepreneur Denis Satanov. «The most important thing is that money can be earned again, but human lives cannot be brought back. We deeply mourn the employees who died in the tragedy.»

Olga said that she had already been in a similar situation after a fire at a warehouse in Shushary in the winter of 2024. At that time, Wildberries reimbursed sellers for losses, albeit slowly: the payment was divided monthly over a year. But now sellers fear they will receive nothing at all: just days before the attack, they signed new offer agreements in which drones are included in the list of «force majeure circumstances.»

At the same time, the marketplace owner Tatyana Kim has already officially stated that sellers will not be left without support:

«Despite the emergency situation and the absence of an obligation to compensate for lost goods, we are already working out the amounts of payments to sellers and other financial support measures. We will definitely inform you in detail on the seller portal about these payments, measures and the procedure for receiving them.»

Later, Tatyana Kim announced that a decision on payments would be made after assessing the total damage, and that this would take up to 30 days. Sellers also received similar messages.

«This is definitely a financial blow for entrepreneurs,» Olga emphasizes. «Can you imagine what thirty days of frozen money means on the eve of the school season? And no one knows how they will calculate this compensation, when it will come.»

Olga added that buyers may also feel the consequences of the attacks: at the very least, delivery times are increasing, and the current deadlines may not correspond to reality.