“They hit what was in parking lot”: Russian drone operator adapted strike on Ukraine’s largest online retailer’s warehouse in real time

Russia killed a warehouse worker at Ukraine's largest online retailer with a guided jet-powered drone. On the morning of 1 August, Russia struck a Rozetka building where 270 people were working at the time with a jet-powered Shahed, targeting company employee Volodymyr Melnychenko and hospitalizing seven others, co-owner Iryna Chechotkina said.

Hitting Rozetka extends a Russian pattern of striking the retail and delivery infrastructure that Ukrainians depend on. Russia has repeatedly struck the sorting centers of Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta, and now the warehouses of Ukraine's largest online store.

The operator aimed at the parking lot

The strike was guided and deliberate, not a stray. Presidential adviser Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov said the target was minibusses parked at the warehouse, which were hit by a jet-powered Geran-4 drone whose operator clearly saw where he was aiming, so there was no error in the strike.

Beskrestnov says the warehouse itself was not the point

The warehouse held nothing worth a missile, and Russia knew it, Beskrestnov stated. The expert, who has tracked Russia's drone tactics throughout, said large warehouses hold no goods, that Russian agents watching the sites know this, and that the decision to launch jet-Shahed strikes is made at a lower level than the choice of targets for ballistic missiles.

Wider perspective

Earlier this month, Ukraine expanded its deep-strike campaign from primarily targeting oil refineries and fuel depots in Russia to also targeting Wildberries' warehouses, Russia's largest e-marketplace. The campaign aims at undermining Russia's wartime economy that sustains the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian drones have already destroyed eight warehouses of Wildberries in July, about 15.4% of its storage, according to Euromaidan Press reporting. That campaign was itself Ukraine's answer to years of Russian strikes on Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta depots. The Center for Countering Disinformation said on 27 July that the marketplace was selling goods for the Russian military.