Ukraine's largest drone strike of the year targets Wildberries warehouses and a missile plant, killing at least 6 in Russia

Summary

Ukraine sent at least 571 drones into Russian territory overnight on July 23-24, according to Russia's Defense Ministry, in what Meduza called one of Ukraine's biggest single-night strikes of 2026. The operation targeted 15 regions and the Black Sea and Azov coastline. In the St. Petersburg region, drones hit warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest e-commerce retailer, for the third time in less than a week, co-founder Tatyana Kim confirmed. A separate strike in the Kirov Region hit a plant linked to missile production and killed at least 6 people. In prior nights, Ukrainian drones had also struck an oil refinery and a pumping station. The Kyiv Independent had documented an earlier Wildberries attack on July 22-23, noting it as a deliberate targeting of civilian logistics infrastructure.

The split

Meduza and The Moscow Times, both operating outside Russia, led with the scale of the drone wave (571 confirmed intercepts) and the Wildberries name recognition. Kyiv Independent framed the Wildberries as "Russia's Amazon," emphasising that striking a retailer best known for consumer goods represents a deliberate Ukrainian strategy to degrade dual-use logistics. Russia's Defense Ministry statement on intercept numbers was the primary official Russian voice; no Kremlin comment on the Kirov deaths appeared in the feed by publication time.

By the numbers

• 571, Ukrainian drones downed by Russian air defenses in a single night, over 15 regions
• 3, times Wildberries warehouses have been struck in under one week
• 6, people killed in the Kirov region strike
• 15, Russian regions and the Crimean coast targeted in the July 24 operation

Why it matters

Repeated strikes on Wildberries logistics infrastructure signal a Ukrainian doctrine of targeting large-scale civilian-commercial nodes that also serve military supply chains, rather than exclusively military sites. The Kirov plant link to missile production, if confirmed, would mark a strategic gain. Russia's claim of 571 interceptions, if accurate, also reveals the scale of Ukraine's drone production and delivery capacity in mid-2026.

What to watch

• Russian official and unofficial damage assessments from the Kirov strike and the Wildberries warehouses.
• Whether Ukraine confirms a missile-plant targeting in official statements.
• Further Wildberries strikes, which have now become a named campaign rather than opportunistic attacks.
• Russia's retaliatory strike pattern following its largest single-night drone intercept of the year.