Ukrainian drone attacks struck industrial facilities across Russia’s western Ryazan region overnight Tuesday, hitting an oil refinery and the logistics hub of Russia’s largest online retailer Wildberries, authorities and Ukrainian officials confirmed Wednesday.
Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov reported that 45 drones were intercepted over the region, with debris causing a large fire in an industrial zone and damaging residential buildings. Six people were hospitalized with injuries, he said in a Telegram post.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the strikes targeted strategic assets, saying Ukraine hit an oil refinery and a logistics center in Ryazan, as well as a Russian naval facility in occupied Crimea where high-speed boats of the Black Sea Fleet are based.
“Russia must feel that every day of this war will only come at a higher cost for it,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
The attack marks a significant expansion of Ukraine’s deep-strike campaign. Drones have damaged at least seven Wildberries warehouses over the past several days, destroying approximately 10 percent of the company’s storage capacity and disrupting operations for tens of thousands of small businesses that rely on the platform, according to company statements and local officials.
Wildberries evacuated a warehouse in Ryazan on Wednesday morning as fires burned at nearby industrial sites. Russia’s state bank Sberbank has reportedly developed a loan restructuring program for Wildberries vendors, amid fears that sustained Ukrainian strikes could trigger a wave of bankruptcies among small and medium-sized enterprises that depend on the e-commerce giant.
The targeting of Wildberries represents a strategic shift in Kyiv’s approach. By hitting a company deeply integrated into daily Russian life, Ukraine aims to raise the economic cost of the war for ordinary Russians and the business community, analysts said.
Separately, a woman was killed and a man injured when missile debris struck an apartment building in the southern Russian city of Taganrog on the Sea of Azov, regional governor Yury Slyusar said. The city hosts various industrial facilities and a grain terminal.
On the battlefield, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its forces had seized two Ukrainian villages — Svitle in the eastern Donetsk region and Nova Sich in the northeastern Sumy region. It also said its drones hit two vessels carrying weapons and military equipment east of the Ukrainian port of Odesa, where local authorities reported damaged infrastructure.
In Ukraine’s Kherson region, a man was killed and three others wounded in a Russian drone attack. Five people, including a child, were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where Russian forces carried out dozens of attacks using drones, aerial bombs and artillery, according to the head of the local military administration.
Both Ukraine and Russia have increasingly targeted vessels in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov in recent weeks, causing a decline in oil and grain shipments from the region. The escalation comes as economic pressure mounts on both sides, with Ukraine seeking to disrupt Russia’s wartime logistics while defending its own export lifelines.