The sky over the outskirts of St Petersburg turned heavy with smoke on the night of 23-24 July. Ukrainian drones struck two warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, one in the Shushary district of the city and another at the Utkin Zavod logistics park in Novosaratovka village in the Leningrad region.
Thick black and grey plumes rose from the sites, visible across parts of the city. Emergency services fought the resulting fires while roads nearby were closed. Three people were injured at the Novosaratovka facility, according to Leningrad Oblast Governor Alexander Drozdenko.
Wildberries confirmed that operations at both logistics centres had to be suspended. The company described the targets as purely commercial. Russian officials, for their part, said air defences intercepted 33 Ukrainian drones over the Leningrad region that night.
The disruption reached the city's main airport. Around 50 flights were delayed at Pulkovo as authorities managed the smoke and the emergency response.
This was not an isolated event. In the days before, Ukrainian drones had already hit other Wildberries sites, including one near Moscow in Elektrostal and another in the Tambov region over the previous weekend. The pattern suggests a deliberate campaign against logistics nodes that Ukraine claims feed Russia's war machine with components and materials.
Videos circulating on social media showed the fires burning on both sides of a road, the orange glow cutting through the night. Residents stood at windows or on balconies, filming what has become an increasingly familiar sight in this long conflict: civilian infrastructure drawn into the fighting.
