Why Ukraine struck Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace

The Ukrainian attacks on the sprawling Russian warehouses produced stark images, with massive pillars of black smoke rising above fires that raged at facilities for Wildberries, the country’s biggest online retailer and its equivalent of Amazon. Kyiv’s drones first hit the sites over the weekend in Elektrostal, just east of Moscow, and in the Tambov region, killing eight people and injuring scores more. Two more Wildberries warehouses -– in the southern Krasnodar and Stavropol regions -– were attacked and set ablaze early Wednesday. One person was killed, and 14 others were hurt.The strikes are a part of Kyiv’s aerial campaign inside Russia, aiming to undermine its wartime economy and make its citizens feel the consequences of the Kremlin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.A look at Wildberries and how it became a wartime target: A retailer that has grown since 2004 Wildberries was launched in 2004 by Tatyana Kim, a teacher and a young mother at the time, focusing at first on selling clothes. Story continues below advertisement Since then, the platform with its distinct purple logo has become an industry leader and household name, allowing big and small businesses alike to sell their go...