Three teenagers killed in warehouse attack as Ukraine begins targeting a second Russian e-commerce company
Ukrainian drones attacked multiple warehouses owned by the online retailer Ozon across southern Russia on Sunday night, according to local authorities.
In the Krasnodar region, debris from a downed drone fell on a private children’s facility, killing three teenagers, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.
Local emergency officials said an additional 12 people were injured in the strike, including six children. The local news outlet 93.ru reported that the building may have housed a private kindergarten operating out of a two-storey house. It is unclear why children were on the premises at night.
Kondratyev also reported damage to residential buildings and buildings under construction, along with a fire at warehouse facilities. Ozon later confirmed that its logistics centre in Krasnodar had been hit, sparking a major fire. Staff were evacuated from the site.
The company said its warehouses in the cities of Adygeysk, Nevinnomyssk and Makhachkala were also struck. No staff were reported injured at the Adygeysk or Nevinnomyssk sites, but a fire broke out at the Makhachkala warehouse, where initial reports indicated injuries. Ozon’s stock price fell by roughly 12% following news of the attacks.
Strikes were also reported in the Rostov region. Residents of the city of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky described seeing a plume of smoke rising over the area near the Kamensky Chemical Plant, which manufactures components for rocket fuel.
The attacks came less than two days after Ukraine’s first-ever strike on Ozon facilities, which targeted a warehouse in the Samara region on Saturday.
In July, Ukraine’s military began a campaign of drone attacks on warehouses belonging to Russia’s largest e-commerce platform, Wildberries. Since then, it has carried out strikes against roughly 20 Wildberries facilities.
