Wildberries Freezes Loan Repayments for Merchants After Drone Strikes on Warehouses

Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries announced Friday that it has frozen loan repayments for small and medium-sized businesses whose inventory was destroyed in recent Ukrainian drone attacks on its warehouses. The three-month payment pause will apply automatically through the company's in-house financial services until the end of October.

The relief builds on existing financial support provided through the parent company Wildberries & Russ (RWB). Previously, Wildberries announced a broader merchant relief package, including reduced storage fees, promotional discounts for select products, and waived regional transit charges.

On Thursday, RWB said that around 88,000 individual merchants began receiving the first tranche of compensation payments for products destroyed during a Ukrainian attack on its fulfillment center in the Moscow region. However, some merchants have complained online that the payouts fell well short of the value of their lost goods, according to an analysis of seller chat groups by the exiled news outlet Agentstvo.

The Moscow region fulfillment center was among the first Wildberries facilities hit last Saturday. A subsequent wave of strikes targeted multiple other warehouses, knocking out an estimated 10% of the company's logistics capacity, as reported by Kommersant.

Ukraine has accused Wildberries of supplying the Russian military with drone parts and other equipment. The company has denied the claim. Wildberries CEO Tatyana Kim, Russia's wealthiest woman, promised financial aid to the families of employees killed or injured in the attacks.

Just days before the strikes began, Wildberries updated its merchant agreement to exempt itself from financial liability for products damaged or destroyed in missile and drone attacks. Other Russian e-commerce platforms have since done the same.