Russia says Ukrainian drone attack kills 7 and wounds 24 people after unmanned aircraft struck a logistics warehouse deep inside its territory. The strike hit overnight, catching night-shift workers mid-shift, and has reignited debate over how far this drone war now reaches.
Regional officials confirmed the casualty figures Saturday morning. The attack landed on a facility hundreds of kilometres from the front line, a detail that underscores how routine long-range strikes have become in this conflict’s fifth year.
Inside the Kotovsk Strike: What Happened at the Wildberries Facility
The Ukrainian drone attack targeted a Wildberries logistics centre in Kotovsk, a town in Russia’s Tambov region. Tambov Governor Evgeny Pervyshov said seven night-shift employees were killed when enemy UAVs hit the facility.
Pervyshov added that, according to preliminary information, 24 people were wounded in the strike. Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, runs the warehouse as part of its national distribution network. Key details from the strike include:
- Location: Kotovsk, Tambov region, western Russia
- Confirmed dead: 7 night-shift employees
- Confirmed wounded: 24 (preliminary count)
- Target: Wildberries logistics/e-commerce warehouse
- Timing: Overnight strike during night-shift operations
Moscow Region Hit by a Wider Overnight Drone Barrage
The Kotovsk strike wasn’t isolated. It came as part of a larger-scale attack involving 370 drones, most of which Moscow’s mayor said were neutralised. The Russian capital’s air defence network was tested across multiple directions simultaneously.
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Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said most drones were intercepted by air defence forces at distant approaches, with 64 UAVs destroyed on the approach to Moscow itself. That scale suggests a coordinated, multi-target operation rather than a single strike.
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total drones launched toward Moscow region | 370+ |
| Drones destroyed near Moscow approach | 64 |
| Deaths (Kotovsk, Tambov region) | 7 |
| Wounded (Kotovsk, Tambov region) | 24 |
| Facilities hit | 2 (Kotovsk, Elektrostal) |
The Escalating Drone War Between Russia and Ukraine
This Ukrainian drone attack fits a pattern stretching back years. Ukrainian drone attack has been striking a range of targets inside Russia, something Kyiv frames as fair retribution for Moscow’s more than four years of attacks against Ukrainian territory.
Long-range drones have become Kyiv’s tool of choice for hitting industrial and logistics targets far from the battlefield. Warehouses, refineries, and transport hubs increasingly sit inside the blast radius of a war that once felt confined to the front.
Wildberries Confirms Damage at Two Separate Facilities
Wildberries, the retailer whose warehouse absorbed the deadliest hit, issued its own statement Saturday. The company said its logistics complexes in both Kotovsk and Elektrostal, in the Moscow region, came under attack overnight.
Fire crews responded to both sites, though outcomes differed. Wildberries stated the fire at the Tambov region facility had been contained, while firefighters were still working to extinguish flames at the Elektrostal site. Commercial infrastructure, not just military assets, is now squarely in the strike zone.
Official Reactions and Verified Statements
Governor Pervyshov’s account remains the primary on-record source for the Kotovsk casualties, and his figures have been echoed across multiple wire outlets without contradiction so far. No independent verification from Ukrainian officials has surfaced regarding this specific strike.
Key statements so far include:
- Pervyshov confirming seven fatalities among night-shift staff
- Pervyshov citing 24 wounded, described as preliminary
- Sobyanin reporting 64 drones downed near Moscow’s approach
- Wildberries confirming damage at two separate logistics sites
- No Ukrainian government comment yet issued on the Kotovsk strike
What This Attack Signals for the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
A Ukrainian drone attack of this scale hundreds of UAVs in a single night signals that Kyiv’s long-range capability keeps expanding rather than shrinking. Targeting a civilian e-commerce warehouse also shows how blurred the line between military and economic targets has become.
For ordinary Russians far from Ukraine’s border, incidents like Kotovsk puncture any illusion of distance from the war. For Ukraine, each strike reinforces its stated goal: making the cost of the invasion felt well beyond the trenches.
