What is Ozon and Why Is It Burning?

At this point I’ve written about Wildberries a number of times. It’s basically the Russian version of Amazon, an online marketplace backed up by dozens of massive warehouses/shipping facilities located around the country. Over the past month, Ukrainian drones have burned quite a few of those buildings to the ground.

Ukraine’s drones have pummeled the giant depots belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise and bringing the war home to the broad public.

The attacks on about 20 Wildberries facilities have underlined Kyiv’s ability to strike far and wide inside Russia and posed a new challenge to President Vladimir Putin nearly 4½ years into his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

They have badly shaken the empire built by Tatyana Kim, the country’s richest female entrepreneur, whose fortune has been estimated at $8.1 billion.

Hundreds of thousands of individual sellers have lost their merchandise, sending shock waves across Russia’s economy. Wildberries has drawn massive loans from VTB and other banks as it expanded and likely will have trouble repaying them, putting more pressure on the financial system.

Wildberries isn’t gone but several of its largest facilities have been completely destroyed. They were left completely undefended because Putin can’t spare drone interceptors to secure private merchandise. He’s trying to prevent those drones from taking out more oil refineries and major military targets. And as you may have seen, that’s not going very well.

Having reduced a significant percentage of Wildberries facilities to ashes, Ukraine is now moving on to some of their smaller competitors, starting with the 2nd biggest online marketplace in Russia, Ozon. Over the past three days, drones have targeted Ozon warehouses, destroying several of them.

Warehouses belonging to Russia’s second-largest online retailer have been hit by a wave of Ukrainian drone strikes.

Ozon said its logistics facilities in the southern regions of Krasnodar, Dagestan, Stavropol and Adygea were on fire and several people had been injured following overnight strikes…

Founded in 1998, Ozon is one of Russia’s first online retailers. The company is second only to Wildberries in terms of scale and presence, with its pick-up posts and delivery boxes stationed across the country.

Both the Ozon and Wildberries logos are often seen together in Russia at shared pick-up points.

The targeting of these online retailers has had the effect of bringing the war closer to ordinary Russians.

As always, there is video of the strikes. Here’s one from early this morning. This is in Dagestan, which is located east of Crimea along the Caspian Sea.

Video of the morning drone attack on the Ozon logistics hub in the Tyube industrial park, Dagestan. https://t.co/xN01rkeqWo pic.twitter.com/r1A0g0m8TM

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 24, 2026

Most of it seems to be on fire.

Ozon logistics hub in the Tyube industrial park, Dagestan, Russia, was attacked by drones early this morning, triggering a large fire.

The complex covers around 130,000 m². Ozon is one of Russia’s largest online marketplaces, similar to Wildberries, with a nationwide network of… pic.twitter.com/PycS1fFg7F

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 24, 2026

Some soldiers were firing at incoming drones but it obviously didn’t work.

Russian soldiers fire chaotically at an incoming drone with assault rifles from the middle of a crowd during today’s attack on the 130,000 m² Ozon logistics hub in the Tyube industrial park, Dagestan. pic.twitter.com/Dk90Ghyd3m

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 24, 2026

Here’s the result of that fire. About 3/4 of the warehouse is gone.

More satellite images showing the aftermath of the strike on the warehouse in Dagestan. A significant part of the warehouse had already completely burned down by the time the photo was taken. This is one of the largest facilities of the Ozon marketplace. It was built in 2025 as… pic.twitter.com/uQM0DBTZ5h

— WarTranslated (@wartranslated) August 24, 2026

I haven’t been able to find video of the other strikes carried out this morning but there is video of some of the ones hit earlier this weekend. Here’s the fire at a hub near St. Petersburg.

Looks like the Ukrainian Armed Forces have decided to seriously go after Ozon

A huge fire broke out at the company’s logistics complex in Kolpino near St. Petersburg.

In addition, Ozon’s largest hub in Orenburg was attacked. https://t.co/o7zCDbLztB pic.twitter.com/kT3MfgSzFJ

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) August 23, 2026

Here’s another one located several hundred miles east of Moscow.

For the first time, a major Ozon logistics hub has been struck and set ablaze in Russia.

The facility in Chapayevsk, Samara Oblast, covers around 135,000 m² and is one of the largest warehouse complexes in the Volga region.

Ozon is Russia’s second largest online marketplace,… pic.twitter.com/6xyevTs2wl

— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 22, 2026

Unlike Amazon, Wildberries and Ozon aren’t selling a lot of company own products. Instead, they are mostly selling stuff being put up by other users. But that means when a warehouse burns down most of the contents belonged to regular people who are now out of business. The company is not responsible for those losses thanks to an update to the terms of service. Did Russia warn them this was coming?

Как выясняется, OZON, как и Widberries, незадолго до сегодняшних атак обновил оферту и внес туда пункт, что не несет перед продавцами ответственности в случае ущерба из-за атак БПЛА, работы ПВО и …в случае военного положения. Бенефициары у OZON столь же интересные, как и WB.… pic.twitter.com/tLSQGY6PY4

— ВЧК ОГПУ (Истина любит действовать открыто). (@rucriminalinfo) July 18, 2026

As it turns out, OZON, just like Wildberries, updated its terms of service shortly before today’s attacks and added a clause stating that it bears no responsibility to sellers in the event of damage due to drone strikes, air defense operations, and… in the event of martial law. OZON’s beneficiaries are just as intriguing as those of WB. The largest stake in recent times was snapped up by entities linked to venture investor Alexander Chachava. According to a source from CHK-OGPU and http://Rucriminal.info, Chachava is an “avatar” for Yuri Kovalchuk. And the deal was overseen by Sergei Kiriyenko, Deputy Head of the Russian Presidential Administration. Entities owned by Vladimir Yevtushenkov also hold a stake in the shares. Ozon’s new CFO (starting April 2026) Ekaterina Yanovskaya is his close and longtime friend. But a significant portion of Yevtushenkov’s assets, including those tied to OZON, are pledged as collateral for loans at Sberbank, which is also considered a major beneficiary of the marketplace. So it seems the Kremlin tipped off the owners of OZON and Wildberries that massive attacks on their warehouses were coming soon. Yet they didn’t bolster security measures (now even private entities can acquire air defenses), didn’t warn their employees about it. Instead, they simply shifted all financial liability onto the sellers—ordinary people who were running their small businesses through these marketplaces and handing over more than half their earnings to the platforms themselves. Now they’re all in shock, heavily indebted, with families to support. But no one’s going to help them. The terms now include the relevant clause. By the way, did they get warned about martial law too?

In any case, this is going to have a major impact on the Russian economy.

Attacks on Wildberries warehouses could hit the Russian economy harder than it seems

According to OSINT researcher Chris O’Wiki, the consequences of strikes on Wildberries warehouses could go far beyond the loss of goods estimated at around $1.2 billion.

Wildberries accounts… https://t.co/gkdMtHKzDn pic.twitter.com/ZxzCkLSrD0

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) July 22, 2026

Attacks on Wildberries warehouses could hit the Russian economy harder than it seems

According to OSINT researcher Chris O’Wiki, the consequences of strikes on Wildberries warehouses could go far beyond the loss of goods estimated at around $1.2 billion.

Wildberries accounts for about 45% of Russia’s online retail market, and together with Ozon controls around 77% of the sector.

The company has become one of the main platforms of Russian retail, with sellers, logistics networks, and customers across the country depending on it.

Damage to major logistics centres could create serious problems for businesses. Restoring such facilities can take months or even years.

After a previous major fire, one of the company’s warehouses took around a year and a half to restore.

In addition, Wildberries warehouses were used by Russian volunteers to deliver equipment to the front lines — drones, components, generators, communication devices, gear, and other supplies.

Putin, through a spokesperson, is vowing to strike back. But taking out Ukraine’s economy won’t improve the situation in Russia.

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