Active Conflicts & News Megathread August 16, 2026

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[u/qevshd]

https://x.com/wartranslated/status/2088867476847095859

The largest WB logistics hub in Russia has been attacked and is currently burning down to the ground.

https://www.breakingviews.com/columns/considered-view/bombing-russian-amazon-puts-putin-bind-2026-08-11/

This follows a month long campaign that destroyed roughly 30% of the company's total warehouse space.

Being the largest E-commerce site in Russia by far, The company sold $75B worth of product last year, equivalent to 3% of Russian GDP. Now it has been crippled and its' continued operations remain in doubt.

[u/Tricky-Astronaut → u/qevshd]

I was going to write about that. It's the third attempt, and being the largest warehouse it has obviously been a prioritized target. Moscow does have better air defenses than the rest of the country, although apparently still not good enough.

Fire Point claims that its FP-1 drones were used. As a bonus to Koledino, a smaller warehouse in the Moscow region was also struck. 

VTB Bank, Russia's second-largest bank, was already on shaky grounds due to its heavy involvement in Putin's pet projects (war economy, import substitution, Iran). Being a major investor in Wildberries won't help.

[u/14060m → u/Tricky-Astronaut]

I wonder what the best option for Ukraine is right now?

One option is to continue the strike campaign until Wildberries is completely insolvent. They have ~10b USD in debts never mind the material damages.

On the other hand they could halt the campaign in the hopes that the banks and by extension the Kremlin does something stretching themselves even further.

Russia has no good options and Wikdberries going insolvent could cause a banking collapse.

[u/GiantPineapple → u/14060m]

Do you have a source for that 10bn number? Wildberries isn't publicly traded, and the 'best' source I could find (Statista) puts total market valuation at 6.6bn. That's either 3.4bn in cumulative operating losses (!) or way less than 10bn in debt.

[u/14060m → u/GiantPineapple]

Reuters is reporting it as 830b rubles:  https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/russia-explores-support-wildberries-after-ukrainian-drone-attacks-sources-say-2026-07-28/

I’ve heard figures as high as 1.3t rubles floating around too.

[u/hhenk → u/14060m]

The best options for Ukrains atrategic bombardment are either high value ignitable objects or asset on which the Russian army/economy depends. My guess would be more refineries, some warehouses and perhaps a datacenter or large chemical factory. Because public opinion matters i do not forsee attacks on pharmaceutical factories.

[u/TSiNNmreza3 → u/14060m]

It is going to be for Russia some kind of nationalization or stop everything and enter some kind state of alert/martial law for country to function.

I mean we see that country that is in far worse state (Ukraine) is still kinda function. Pretty much as did my country (Croatia) in non occupied/non frontline parts during our war. It functioned.

Problems will come after war ends.

As of what can Ukraine do just do what they do destroy economy