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Ukrainian drones Friday hit warehouses for Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries for a third time in six days, this time near Saint Petersburg, triggering a fire that sent smoke pouring over the historic city.   Hours later, blasts were heard by AFP reporters over Kyiv, after the authorities warned of incoming Russian missiles — a rare attempted daytime strike on the Ukrainian capital. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed as “successful” the strike on Wildberries — Russia’s largest online retailer often known as the Russian equivalent of Amazon. He accused the online retailer of supplying the army “with drone components, navigation equipment, and military gear.”Ukraine has targeted Saint Petersburg as it steps up long-range drone strikes on Russian energy, military and logistics sites in recent weeks, calling the attacks justified retribution for Moscow’s nightly drone and missile barrage of its cities.  In Saint Petersburg, an AFP reporter saw grey smoke rising into the morning sky over high-rise residential buildings in the city, President Vladimir Putin’s hometown that is more than 800 kilometres (500 miles) from the Ukrainian border. Anna, a 50-year-old teacher from Saint Petersburg, told AFP the strikes were “frightening”.

Svetlana, a 30-year-old cashier from Saint Petersburg’s suburbs, said: “What’s happening scares me, everything is getting worse. Of course I would like peace.”Russia’s defence ministry said its forces shot down some 571 drones overnight over more than a dozen regions and Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014 — one of the largest one-night barrages of the war. – Wildberries under fire – Wildberries said two of its logistics facilities in Saint Petersburg and one in Simferopol, in Moscow-annexed Crimea, were hit.”Rapid evacuation was carried out at all the warehouses … according to preliminary data, there are no casualties,” Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim said on social media.

It was the third overnight attack by Ukraine on Wildberries’ sites in the past week. Last weekend, eight night-shift workers were killed in attacks on Wildberries sites that saw one of the company’s main warehouses outside Moscow burn to the ground. Hundreds of small businesses saw their inventories wiped out in the strike, triggering angry comments on social media. Kyiv calls its strikes “long-range sanctions”, saying the attacks are justified retribution for Russia’s more than four-year offensive and nightly attacks on its cities.

Russian ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv have killed dozens in recent weeks, ripping open apartment buildings in the capital. Ukraine’s retaliatory campaign has triggered nationwide fuel shortages and, Kyiv says, dented Russia’s financial war chest. – ‘Escalation’ – Columns of thick black smoke were still billowing into the sky from at least one of the sites hours after the hit, an AFP reporter saw.

Putin spent the first years of the war trying to shield the population from the fall-out of his decision to launch the offensive on Ukraine. But the strikes on oil refineries have triggered fuel shortages and big attacks near major cities have brought the dramatic visible consequences of the war into the homes of many Russians. Nevertheless, with the Kremlin having stamped out dissent and introduced sweeping censorship, many Russians remain behind the offensive.

Anna, the teacher in Saint Petersburg, told AFP she was “against what’s happening” but if Ukraine carried on its strikes then Russia “had to continue” its offensive. Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport suspended flights during the attack, resuming operations around 06:00 (0300 GMT), with around 50 departures disrupted. US President Donald Trump has appeared to give his backing to Ukraine’s counter-attacks on Russia — calling the strikes “an  escalation that can lead to an end”.

Washington’s attempts to mediate a peace deal between the warring sides have largely stalled with its own war on Iran raging. The United Nations has reported a surge in civilian deaths in 2026, saying June was the deadliest month since mid-2022. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022 — though there is no precise toll with neither side routinely revealing the number of their losses.

Fri, 24 Jul 2026 09:52:30 GMT