Ukraine is suspected to have hit two major logistics centres for “Russia’s Amazon” overnight, marking the latest successful drone attack striking into the heart of Vladimir Putin’s country. The devastating drone strikes left the Wildberries online marketplace hubs ablaze in St Petersburg and Crimea.
Another strike was reported in the Tver region amid a mass failure by Putin’s air defences during the most intense Ukrainian overnight attack of the war. Major flight delays hit St Petersburg as black smoke rose from the Wildberries strikes in Shushary and Utkina Zavod, likely causing billions of pounds of damage.
The company, which handles 52% of all Russian online orders, suspended its operations at these two hubs.
The Wildberries hub in Tver was also hit, bringing the total for the online marketplace to nine in recent days, with several completely destroyed.
Separately, Ukraine used its own Flamingo missiles to strike the key defence plant Avitek in the Kirov region.
There were fears of multiple casualties among workers at the Kirov plant after reports that no evacuation alert had been sounded before multiple explosions.
Dozens of ambulances were reported to be rushing to the blitzed manufacturing base.
The strike came 12 hours after Putin held an “emergency” security council meeting as he desperately sought to boost weapons production at plants such as Avitek for a war he refuses to halt despite the pain Ukraine is now inflicting on Russia.