Sellers: “Remains Simply Destroyed” After Drone Attack

Sellers of Russia’s largest marketplace Wildberries are worried about the future of their business after a fire at a warehouse in Elektrostal, Moscow region. Most of their goods were stored in this logistics center, which completely burned down after a drone attack.

Sellers began recording videos on social media en masse. Some had goods worth tens of millions of rubles (hundreds of thousands of dollars at current rates) burned, wrote Anastasia, the owner of one of the marketplace shops. Details — in the report by MSK1.RU.

“The moment I read that the warehouse in Elektrostal was on fire, I already realized that all my business stock was simply destroyed. Every long-sleeve shirt and suit I sold counted. I’m falling into debt to my employees, landlords, creditors, and the tax authorities,” she wrote.

Many sellers said they had recently signed a new offer agreement according to which the company is not liable for goods if they are damaged as a result of drone attacks or other military equipment.

“Today the warehouse where almost all my goods were located burned down. The other day I signed an offer agreement stating that the company does not insure goods in such cases, and we all signed it unanimously. It’s very painful to realize that everything you have built over several years can be lost in an instant,” wrote seller Yana.

However, despite all the difficulties, the sellers united and expressed condolences to the families of the dead and injured.

Diana, the founder of a clothing store, said that almost all of her store«s products were in the burned warehouse.

“In 10 minutes, the business we had built for years burned down. No one will compensate us for the losses from this goods because we recently signed an offer agreement that in case of a drone attack, all risks fall on us,” she said.

But now the most important thing is to support the families of people whose relatives died and were injured in the major fire.

“We can remake the goods, we can relaunch the project from scratch, but we cannot bring back the lives of the people who died. On behalf of our entire team, we want to express our deepest condolences,” she added.

Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim announced that the company is launching support measures for the marketplace sellers. According to her, it is now important to resume the pace of deliveries and return to the usual work rhythm.

“Starting today, we are introducing the following measures: discounts on storage at a number of warehouses for the next 45 days from the date of delivery, as well as a 100% discount on transit deliveries to regional warehouses,” she wrote in her Telegram channel. “These are the first decisions that will help redistribute goods faster and reduce additional costs.”

The company is also working on a support mechanism for sellers. Now it is necessary to assess the consequences to determine the amount of payments. According to Tatyana Kim, the damage assessment will take about a month.

“Additional support measures for our partners are being developed jointly with WB Bank. I thank our partners for their trust and support,” she concluded.

Later, the Wildberries press service announced the launch of a set of support measures for sellers whose goods and operations were affected as a result of the attacks on warehouses in Elektrostal and Kotovsk (Tambov Oblast).

Affected sellers will be given a 6-month deferment to repay their debt, the joint press service of Wildberries & Russ reported.

“Sellers need to submit an application through their personal account in the bank’s system or contact their personal manager. The bank will review applications on a priority basis. For the large business segment, a similar process will also be set up soon,” the press service said. “To replenish lost inventory, sellers will be provided with preferential loans and factoring conditions.”

Wildberries will also cancel all fees for payments within Russia for sellers and will introduce interest accrual on balances at an increased rate. These benefits will be applied automatically; no application or documents are needed.

“In addition, to restore short-term solvency, sellers will receive preferential terms for accelerated withdrawal of revenue from the platform, including through the provision of overdraft limits,” the press service added.

Earlier, our colleagues from Fontanka compiled material about all the largest fires in logistics centers of Russian marketplaces. We recall how the Ozon warehouse in the Moscow region and the WB logistics center in Leningrad Oblast burned in 2022 and 2024.