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.

  • xenomor@lemmy.worldEnglish
    930·
    20 hours ago

    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.
    • 🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞@lemmy.worldEnglish
      18·
      18 hours ago

      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:

      1. Wildberries specifically had a category for essentially “Buy this and have it sent to the front for our soldiers to use”
      2. They were sending so much stuff that they set up dedicated infrastructure for that purpose
      3. 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.

    • encelado748@feddit.orgEnglish
      211·
      20 hours ago

      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.