Five dead in Moscow region as Kyiv targets more Wildberries sites

A drone strike on an industrial zone outside the Russian capital has killed five people and wounded 10 others, the region’s governor said, as Moscow and Kyiv traded attacks.

Ukraine has conducted long-range strikes targeting civilian infrastructure in Russia, and in recent weeks stepped up attacks on warehouses belonging to the Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries.

Ukraine often fires hundreds of drones into Russia each night, in retaliation for Russia launching hundreds of its own drones and dozens of missiles at Ukrainian towns and cities.

Moscow’s regional governor Andrey Vorobyov said early Tuesday, local time, that several fires broke out following a drone strike in the Novoselki industrial zone outside the Russian capital.

“According to preliminary information, five people were killed,” he said on Telegram, adding 10 others were wounded.

Drones also damaged a warehouse near Krasny Bor in northwestern Russia, wounding one person, according to Leningrad regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko.

Wildberries said that a fire broke out at its Krasny Bor logistics facility as a result of the attack.

Another Wildberries warehouse was targeted by a Ukrainian drone attack in the rural area of Emmaus, around 180 kilometres (112 miles) northwest of Moscow, regional governor Vitaly Korolyov said.

Wildberries is a highly popular online retail platform in Russia, often dubbed the “Russian Amazon”, accounting for up to 10 per cent of the country’s entire retail turnover, according to Russian media.

Since the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, Wildberries has been accused of helping Russians dodge Western sanctions by importing branded goods via third party countries.

Tuesday’s strikes are the latest in a series of prominent drone attacks carried out by Ukraine against targets in Russia, as part of a campaign to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.

On Monday, Russian authorities said 11 people were killed by drone strikes on a popular Russian holiday spot and on the Crimean Peninsula.

Two children killed

In Ukraine, Russian attacks killed three people in Sumy in the country’s north-east, the head of the regional military administration said on Tuesday.

“Two children and an elderly woman were killed in Russian [guided aerial bomb] strikes on Sumy tonight,” Oleg Grygorov said on Telegram.

“The girls were 5 and 10 years old. The children’s bodies were recovered from under the rubble of their house.”

Six guided aerial bombs struck civilian infrastructure in the city, including residential and non-residential buildings, Grygorov said.

Another attack on the port city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine killed an 89-year-old woman, according to Georgy Reshetilov, head of the region’s military administration.

Russia launched 136 drones at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv’s air force said, 117 of which were shot down or intercepted. 

There has been an uptick in civilian deaths in the conflict throughout 2026, the United Nations has reported, as the four-and-a-half-year war grinds on with no sign of a peace deal.

Russia launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, and has regularly struck its neighbour, including from the Crimean peninsula.

Moscow-installed authorities in Crimea on Tuesday said an unidentified soldier opened fire, killing a fellow serviceman and three civilians.

Ukraine’s front lines were little changed in July as its forces largely stalled Russia’s momentum, according to AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War.

AFP