This night, the logistics center of Wildberries in Ryazan and an oil refinery were targeted by Ukrainian drones. Following a major fire, part of the building collapsed. According to Russian sources, 6 people were hospitalized.
Armenian businesspeople have also suffered from these strikes, as many of the goods of around 10,000 Armenian entrepreneurs working with this platform have remained in damaged logistics centers.
“We have lost goods worth 6 million drams, I have no goods at all, everything that was in Elektrostal has burned to the last item,” one of them told Azatutyun.
“The damage in the Elektrostal warehouse amounts to several million drams,” said another.
“It’s about 2 million 700 thousand drams specifically in my case,” noted a third.
Since July 18, Ukraine has been striking Wildberries' logistics infrastructure with drones. Over the past 11 days, at least 10 warehouses and logistics centers of the company have come under fire. The first major attack resulted in 8 deaths and more than 80 injuries.
Before these strikes, Wildberries added a clause to its contract with entrepreneurs stating that no compensation would be provided for goods damaged or destroyed due to the war, as they are considered force majeure. Weeks after this announcement, the Elektrostal warehouse was bombed.
Despite the changes in contracts, the company’s founder, Tatyana Kim, announced that financial assistance had been provided to over 88,000 small sellers.
Izabura Hayrapetyan, who has been selling various goods on Wildberries for about four years and supports other entrepreneurs, told Azatutyun that this assistance has also reached Armenian sellers, but in negligible percentages.
“For example, we have stores that lost 400 items, and they were compensated 50,000 drams, which doesn’t even cover 10 percent of the cost of those 400 items. Even now, those sellers who have goods in those warehouses, we cannot return,” Hayrapetyan noted.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Wildberries' logistics centers were targeted because, according to Kyiv, they were also used for Russian military supplies. Wildberries denied these claims, stating that their warehouses are civilian facilities and operate solely for commercial purposes.
The disruption of operations at Russia's largest marketplace affects not only sellers but also an entire chain. Taron Papikyan, whose company teaches people how to sell on this platform, pointed out that other links will also be affected: “Transporters who import sellers' goods from Armenia or China to the Russian Federation. Secondly, there are buyers who are already searching for products for sellers in China. Thirdly, companies that organize the packaging and delivery of products to Wildberries warehouses. And finally, the last link in this ecosystem is, of course, the sellers.”
Recently, Russian and international media have reported that due to the closure of several Wildberries warehouses, there may be issues with product supplies, some orders may be delayed, and the sale of certain products may be temporarily suspended.
For example, the Ryazan warehouse is temporarily not accepting new deliveries, and the goods stored there have been removed from sale. The company is looking for new warehouses in Kazakhstan and has offered sellers to move their goods to other Russian warehouses until the restoration and accounting of warehouse stocks is completed.
“Wildberries operates solely based on the work of sellers, and if it cannot at least mitigate the losses of sellers and restore their trust, it will face problems as a business,” emphasized Taron Papikyan.
Some Armenian entrepreneurs selling on the Wildberries platform are requesting support from the Armenian government to temporarily exempt them from taxes, while others counter that this is a business risk and the Armenian government should not help.
The Ministry of Economy stated that they are in contact with Armenian entrepreneurs and Wildberries partners, and the extent of the damages is being assessed.
