The attacks began on a July weekend and have continued for a month, stretching from Moscow and St. Petersburg, to cities in the south, and eastward to the Ural Mountains. The targets weren’t oil refineries, maritime hubs or arms plants hit by other Ukrainian strikes, but warehouses that bring the convenience of online shopping across the breadth of Russia.

Ukraine’s drones have pummeled the giant depots belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer, burning billions of dollars’ worth of merchandise and bringing the war home to the broad public.

The attacks on about 20 Wildberries facilities have underlined Kyiv’s ability to strike far and wide inside Russia and posed a new challenge to President Vladimir Putin nearly 4½ years into his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

They have badly shaken the empire built by Tatyana Kim, the country’s richest female entrepreneur, whose fortune has been estimated at $8.1 billion.

    • Wakmrow@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Ok my company has an Amazon wish list for Ukrainian soldiers does that mean its cool if Russia missiles Amazon warehouses and trucks

      • truthfultemporarily@feddit.org
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        6 days ago

        Depends, if you mean just war theory and international law:

        a legitimate target in wartime is anyone and anything engaged in harming. […] Soldiers… may be directly targeted, as may… their civilian suppliers.

        Brian Orend - The morality of war - jus in bello

    • xenomor@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I keep reading this claim, but rarely see specifics discussed. As far as i can tell, it’s electronic equipment that could be used for things like drones, and some light arms related equipment that could, of course, be used in combat, but is probably not designed specifically for that. If theres other stuff, please let us know.

      That being said, can we please just be honest? Even if wildberries is a military supplier, if intention of the attacks is to sow civilian fear and unrest, then this is terrorism. I’m so tired of the US (and more generally the “west”) pretending that we don’t engage in terrorism, or endorse and facilitate terrorism. We do, a lot.

      • xenomor@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Here’s a thought exercise for us US folks:

        If Iran blew up the Walmart in Bloomington Indiana, would you consider that terrorism? Walmart supplies* tons of stuff that can be used for military action including firearms directly.

        I strongly suspect that Americans would be outraged at the inhuman, terroristic barbarism of such an act and use it to argue moral high ground and justify the violence their own nation initiated.

        • Notice how I said “supplies” instead of “sells” because that sounds much more scary.
        • encelado748@feddit.org
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          7 days ago

          If Walmart was displaying a special category “for use in the war with Iran” with tactical clothing and gear, then I would have been less sympathetic to be honest. In this scenario Walmart promote items to send to the soldiers that kill the victims of a military invasion.

        • 🌞 Alexander Daychilde 🌞@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          I upvoted you becasue I think it’s respectfully written and a valid thought experiment.

          I think the experiment fails, or has a negative result:

          1. Wildberries specifically had a category for essentially “Buy this and have it sent to the front for our soldiers to use”
          2. They were sending so much stuff that they set up dedicated infrastructure for that purpose
          3. Arguably, this had become a significant segment of their business

          So it’s a matter of degree. This isn’t like an American buying boots and sending them to their soldier somewhere. The scale of operations is wildly different.

          I do think there would also be a contributory factor of “But… but this is us, not them!”, but I think the difference is very clear, and Wilberries is a valid target, whereas Walmart would not be.

      • xenomor@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        Are the people downvoting this claiming that the US/the west don’t engage in terrorism? If so, I would love to hear the argument for that claim. Otherwise, I’m going to just assume that y’all are just engaging in the team sport moralism that is so common here in the US whereby things are bad when the “bad guys” do it, but good and righteous when us “good guys” do the same thing.

        • Lucius_Sweet@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          No, you are being down voted for being a whiney turd trying to both sides this conflict in the mistaken belief that two wrongs somehow make a right.

          • xenomor@lemmy.world
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            6 days ago

            Thanks for confirming my suspicion that this community largely believes that right and wrong depends on who is doing it. I support Ukraine and have from the beginning. Not even the moral depravity on display in this thread will change my opinion there. Goddamn, y’all are gross.