"95% Of The Merchandise Was Destroyed By Fire": Losses From The Attacks On Wildberries' Warehouses Have Reached Astronomical Figures
9- 14.08.2026, 14:11
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A Russian business empire has been pushed to the brink of survival.
The Ukrainian campaign against Wildberries, which deprived Russia’s leading marketplace of all its major warehouses and approximately one-third of its total warehouse capacity, has pushed Tatyana Kim’s business empire to the brink of survival.
Wildberries’ direct losses from the loss of infrastructure alone amounted to 147–223 billion rubles by mid-August, and when factoring in dismantling, waste removal, and site remediation, they could reach 278 billion rubles, according to calculations for Forbes by Sergey Semko, a leading analyst at the research agency Data Insight .
According to his estimates, marketplace sellers lost goods worth 445–507 billion rubles. Thus, the total amount of losses could reach about 800 billion rubles.
The head of the Association of Suppliers of Goods for E-commerce Platforms (APTEP) Margarita Evstigneeva estimates sellers’ losses to be even higher—600–700 billion rubles. Taking Wildberries’ losses into account, the total amount of damage could reach nearly 1 trillion rubles.
“For many, up to 95% of their entire inventory was destroyed. At the same time, Wildberries considers itself the aggrieved party; it paid small sellers an average of 2,000–30,000 rubles, which didn’t even cover 20% of their losses,” Evstigneyeva complains.
Wildberries, which annually sold goods worth 3% of Russia’s GDP, apparently has no funds to pay out. Following the attacks on its warehouses, the company’s revenue plummeted and signs of a cash flow shortfall emerged. Sellers are complaining en masse that Wildberries has begun delaying payments for sold goods, while its subsidiary, WB Bank, has launched a campaign to attract public funds for short-term deposits with interest rates exceeding 14% per year.
Wildberries’ direct losses alone may already have exceeded its annual profit: last year, the company earned 175 billion rubles. Apparently, there are no plans for further payments to the affected sellers, Evstigneeva laments: “They say it’s a force majeure event, circumstances beyond our control—a terrorist attack.”
Sellers “desperately” need compensation for lost goods—at least at cost—as well as a tax exemption “at least until the end of the year,” complains major retailer Igor Shanchenko, who lost more than 400 million rubles worth of goods in his warehouses. But this amounts to hundreds of billions of rubles, and the budget doesn’t have that kind of money, a source close to the Kremlin previously told Reuters.
As of the end of July, the federal budget deficit had reached 6.45 trillion rubles, which is 1.7 times higher than the target for the entire year. Military spending, which accounts for one-third of the budget, could exceed the planned level by 40%. “Mass bankruptcies” await Wildberries sellers, a source told Reuters.
Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.
Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, Warszawa
IBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123
SWIFT: BIGBPLPW
Name of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”
Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aims
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