SerpApi.Org
July 22 (UPI) -- Ukrainian drones hit logistics plants of Russian online retailer Wildberries for the third night in four days, injuring 15 workers at two facilities in the southwest of the country, the company's CEO and regional heads said Wednesday.
Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim said in an online post that warehousing in Krasnodar and the city of Nevinnomyssk in the Stavropol region further to the east came under attack, causing injuries and forcing an emergency evacuation of employees.
"Our people are our priority. I want to thank our team -- our heroes -- who carried out a swift evacuation. Unfortunately, preliminary reports indicate there are injuries.
"There are no words to describe the emotions stirred by attacks on ordinary people -- on our employees, on all of us -- who are simply doing their jobs. Yet, these situations highlight the most important thing: we must continue doing what we do for the benefit of the people," wrote Kim.
Krasnodar Krai regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said 10 people were injured in a strike on a warehousing complex, three of them seriously, as part of what he called "a massive attack" on the region that killed at least one worker in a separate strike on a commercial enterprise in Armavir, 120 miles east of Krasnodar city.
Armavir authorities said an oil depot was also targeted in the attack, setting it on fire.
Two apartment blocks in Krasnodar and two houses in Dinskaya village were damaged by debris from downed drones, according to Kondratyev.
Stavropol Krai Gov. Vladimir Vladimirov said five people were hurt at a logistics facility on the outskirts of Nevinnomyssk, but only required treatment as outpatients.
Footage circulating online of the two Wildberries facilities that the BBC said it had verified shows explosions at the complex in Nevinnomyssk and major blazes raging at both sites.
Saying a tanker and four cargo ships from Russia's shadow fleet were also hit in the Black and Asov seas, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed the strikes on warehouse complexes, saying they were part of the Russian military's supply chain.
"Ukraine's long-range sanctions successfully struck important targets in Russia's Krasnodar and Stavropol regions, logistics hubs involved in supplying the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment, and other gear," he wrote on X.
"We are, quite justly, bringing the war back home -- to Russia," said Zelensky.
The attacks overnight follow attacks on Wildberries south of Moscow in the early hours of Monday in which drones struck a fulfilment center in Kolyedino and warehouses in Belye Stolby were destroyed and strikes early Saturday that killed at least eight people and injured more than 60 at a Wildberries distribution facility at Kotovsk in Tambov region and a second facility in Elektrostal in the Moscow region.
