The attacks began on a July weekend and have continued for a month, stretching from Moscow and St. Petersburg, to cities in the south, and eastward to the Ural Mountains. The targets weren’t oil refineries, maritime hubs or arms plants hit by other Ukrainian strikes, but warehouses that bring the convenience of online shopping across the breadth of Russia.
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.
Russia Strikes Epicentr, Nova Poshta, Silpo, Novus Warehouses, Killing at Least 10 (kyivpost) - retaliation for the Ukrainian strikes. Russia apparently also claims Nova Poshta became a logistic arm of the Ukrainian military.
Not mentioning that wildberries sold military equipment to soldiers. It’s a valid military targets.
Ok my company has an Amazon wish list for Ukrainian soldiers does that mean its cool if Russia missiles Amazon warehouses and trucks
I think the grand majority of us are okay with Russia targeting Amazon.
Amazon is such a shit company.
That would be very cool, indeed!
Yes. Military logisitics hubs are valid targets in war. The same way Iran targeting Amazon’s datacenters in UAE/Bahrain were valid targets, as Israel/US use AWS for targeting Iran.
Ecommerce sites that do not want to be targeted should not sell or ship wartime goods. Wildberries was specially egregious, as it had a dedicated tag called “Everything for the SVO” that was just for supplying soldiers in the Ukraine war, but all companies who do are valid targets.
I think if we are to be honest about this, targeting Amazon warehouses would be met with outrage in the west. Even though my company’s wish list for Ukrainian soldiers definitely includes equipment meant for the front lines such as ifaks
You seen to have glossed over the fact that Wildberries had a specific “things to kill Ukrainian” tag in their store, so its not a 1:1 comparison.
But yes, the US probally shouldn’t get into a war of choice with a foreign power within range of any Amazon warehouses. They would indeed be a valid target, albeit one more nebulous than the “buy these things to kill those specific people” storefront that is Wildberries.
Russians should be outraged that the war continues, but Ukraine is entirely within its right to target wartime logistics hubs that are directly equipping enemy soldiers, no matter the coat of paint on it, or whether that logistic hub also sells candy bars and t-shirts.
Yeah they should shot Amazon warehouse and data center.
I keep reading this claim, but rarely see specifics discussed. As far as i can tell, it’s electronic equipment that could be used for things like drones, and some light arms related equipment that could, of course, be used in combat, but is probably not designed specifically for that. If theres other stuff, please let us know.
That being said, can we please just be honest? Even if wildberries is a military supplier, if intention of the attacks is to sow civilian fear and unrest, then this is terrorism. I’m so tired of the US (and more generally the “west”) pretending that we don’t engage in terrorism, or endorse and facilitate terrorism. We do, a lot.
Lol. Russia will fall. Slava Ukraini.
Lol at terrorism during an attack on an agressor
I hope they’re scared
Yesterday I posted a comment at night on a national well known news websites article about the attack, mods removed it in the morning along with many other comments
I said I hope the whole country gets asfalted
I have never had over 300 upvotes on a comment there, and this was posted at night when nobody reads the news.
The Netherlands cant wait to see them all beg
Camouflage nets, rifle scopes, body armor, trench candles… Just to name a few.
that’s just camping equipment!!11 /s
(but on a serious note, I’m baffled at the audacity of claiming that targeting wildberries by ukraine is the same level of “terrorism” as targeting actual civilians by russia.)
Well, legally it’s (AFAIK) really a grey area. But morally… Especially considering that Russia was targeting Nova Poshta with the same justification for quite some time before the attacks on Wildberries started.
i mean forget the poshta, they are bombing civilians and civil infra (remember last winter)?
but i mean forget them bombing civilians, they massacred civilians in Bucha.
but forget bucha, they invaded a sovereign country.
Are the people downvoting this claiming that the US/the west don’t engage in terrorism? If so, I would love to hear the argument for that claim. Otherwise, I’m going to just assume that y’all are just engaging in the team sport moralism that is so common here in the US whereby things are bad when the “bad guys” do it, but good and righteous when us “good guys” do the same thing.
No, you are being down voted for being a whiney turd trying to both sides this conflict in the mistaken belief that two wrongs somehow make a right.
Here’s a thought exercise for us US folks:
If Iran blew up the Walmart in Bloomington Indiana, would you consider that terrorism? Walmart supplies* tons of stuff that can be used for military action including firearms directly.
I strongly suspect that Americans would be outraged at the inhuman, terroristic barbarism of such an act and use it to argue moral high ground and justify the violence their own nation initiated.
- Notice how I said “supplies” instead of “sells” because that sounds much more scary.
I upvoted you becasue I think it’s respectfully written and a valid thought experiment.
I think the experiment fails, or has a negative result:
- Wildberries specifically had a category for essentially “Buy this and have it sent to the front for our soldiers to use”
- They were sending so much stuff that they set up dedicated infrastructure for that purpose
- Arguably, this had become a significant segment of their business
So it’s a matter of degree. This isn’t like an American buying boots and sending them to their soldier somewhere. The scale of operations is wildly different.
I do think there would also be a contributory factor of “But… but this is us, not them!”, but I think the difference is very clear, and Wilberries is a valid target, whereas Walmart would not be.
If Walmart was displaying a special category “for use in the war with Iran” with tactical clothing and gear, then I would have been less sympathetic to be honest. In this scenario Walmart promote items to send to the soldiers that kill the victims of a military invasion.
Nope, doing a community service. Walmart is a parasite.
It should be stressed that Ukraine isn’t attacking WB instead of attacking refineries, logistics, and shipping. They’re doing it in addition.
Warehouses are a soft, easy target. And, like oil facilities, you’re counting on the goods themselves to do most of the destruction with a little incendiary help. Ukraine has a large supply of slow, cheap suicide drones and this is a good use for them. You force Russia to move air defenses away from the front, absorb economic and financial losses, and remind regular “non-political” Russians that they’re at war. Also, you minimize collateral damage because unless workers are killed in the initial attack, they’re likely to escape the conflagration that accounts for most of the damage.
The attacked OnlyComrades?
I was hoping to find some recordings/archive of the Wildberries SMO section from before they removed it, but no luck. The best I could find was a reddit thread with some examples from a month ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/UkraineWarVideoReport/comments/1uzsxn9/a_huge_amount_of_military_goods_are_sold_on/. Camo bulletproof vests and equipment for fiber optic drones.
They are creating a new marketplace for dual-use goods that were previously, albeit with limitations, traded on WB: https://theins.press/en/news/296020
soft targets are the way.
Engaging in total war has never broken a nation’s moral before,… but maybe it’ll work for us
~ Ukraine
I don’t think there is anything wrong with attacking corporations that supply the war effort, I just think Ukraine is kidding itself if they think you can bomb morale out of people.
Username checks out
This is dangerously borderline. I mean, the next step is hitting malls or universities. Thoughts for the civilian killed by this war and their families.
But when a russian missile hits an appartment building, that’s somehow fine because reasons, right?
No that’s obviously not fine and worse.
Do Ukraine use thermobaric bombs (ones that make your lungs implode)? Or cluster mines? or MOABs Or many things that go against the geneva convention.
Because that’s that Russia does. IRL Mordor
Yes, we precisely agree. Russia is doing awful things and Ukraine borderline ones.
Then, that line was already crossed broadly by Russia a good while ago, so there’s no borderline anymore. THEY started an invasion, THEY started bombing houses, THEY kidnapped kids to brainwash them. But now that Ukraine is finally fighting back and hitting where it hurts, it’s suddenly “a dangerous borderline”?
Wtf friend, it’s not suddenly a dangerous borderline, it always has been a borderline, which Russia crossed long ago, it’s not the point. Russia is bad, Russia is the aggressor, but it doesnt mean Ukraine can do borderline things without me calling it borderline.
Oh well.
