Hundreds of firefighters battle blaze at Wildberries warehouse in Russia's Vladimir region
Fire and Aftermath at Wildberries Warehouse
MOSCOW, Aug 3 (Reuters) - More than 200 firefighters were battling a fire at a warehouse run by Russian online retailer Wildberries east of Moscow following a Ukrainian drone attack on Monday, as Kyiv's campaign against the e-commerce giant intensified.
Firefighting Efforts and Scale of the Blaze
Alexander Avdeyev, the regional governor of Vladimir, said 203 firefighters and 67 pieces of equipment had been deployed to tackle Monday's blaze, which measured 100,000 square metres (1.07 million square feet), equivalent to about 14 soccer fields.
Evacuation and Business Continuity
Wildberries confirmed the attack and said all staff had been evacuated and deliveries and shipping orders had been rerouted to other warehouses.
Statements from Wildberries Leadership
The company's founder and CEO, Tatyana Kim, has called the Ukrainian attacks – which have targeted more than a dozen Wildberries sites since July 18 – "acts of terrorism".
Impact on Operations and International Business
Kyiv has sought to disrupt the operations of the company that is often described as Russia's answer to Amazon and is a linchpin of the consumer economy.
Kim said businesses across 10 countries had suffered significant losses as a result of the attacks and that Wildberries was working with the Russian government to mitigate the impact on vendors using its platform.
Casualties and Injuries
Avdeyev said a young man had sustained a non-life-threatening head wound in the attack and was being taken to hospital. Another young man had an injured finger, while a woman had also suffered what the governor described as minor injuries to one of her legs.
Reporting and Editorial Credits
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Barbara Lewis)
