The systematic targeting of Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace, has removed at least 8% of its logistics footprint from service since the first strikes on 18 July. The company says 444,000 sq m of warehouse space is out of action, with five facilities totalling 802,000 sq m hit. The attacks have killed and injured warehouse staff, forced the suspension of operations at hubs from Elektrostal near Moscow to Krasnodar in the south, and left hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized sellers facing uncompensated losses of goods.

Founder Tatyana Kim, in a video address to entrepreneurs, described the drone strikes as “circumstances of force majeure” and stated that, regardless of what is written in the platform’s terms, the law does not require the company to compensate sellers for goods destroyed in terrorist attacks. She warned sellers against lawyers and fraudsters promising to recover damages, insisting that “in the current situation, only we and the state can help you.” Kim said the company has already made two tranches of voluntary support payments, with the second wave covering almost 100,000 small and medium-sized businesses, and has introduced credit holidays and buyer discounts for larger partners.

Industry bodies have responded with proposals to shift the risk. The Union of Electronic Commerce (SET) has written to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and to Wildberries itself, urging that marketplaces be obliged to insure sellers’ goods or create compensation funds to cover losses from drone attacks, fires and other force majeure events. The association also called for caps on commissions, a freeze on penalties for cancelled deliveries, and free removal of remaining stock from affected warehouses. Wildberries said such questions require a comprehensive approach worked out jointly with federal authorities, financial institutions and the insurance industry.

Kim said the company is discussing a package of support measures with the government and that a system under which “everyone will receive help” will be announced in the coming days. She also said Wildberries is rapidly reconfiguring its logistics, has already signed some leases for replacement capacity in Russia and abroad, and will soon commission facilities built in its countries of operation. The next concrete step is a series of face-to-face meetings with entrepreneurs in the worst-affected regions, scheduled to begin next week.