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Russia hits Ukraine with second ballistic missile assault in a week
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Ukrainian drones have hit warehouses belonging to Russia's biggest online retailer again, injuring 15 people, according to the company's founder and regional governors.Logistics hubs run by Wildberries in two south-west cities were impacted by overnight attacks and workers evacuated, the founder said.It is the second time Ukraine has attacked the firm's facilities in four days, with warehouses in Tambov and Elektrostal hit over the weekend, killing eight people.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that Ukraine had hit logistics hubs in the Krasnodar and Stavropol regions "involved in providing the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment and other gear".Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim said workers were evacuated after the attacks on logistics centres in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk in the Stavropol region."There are no words to describe all the feelings and emotions caused by the attacks on ordinary people, on our employees, on us, who are simply doing our jobs," she wrote on Telegram. "But these situations demonstrate the most important thing: we must continue to do what we do for the benefit of people."Five people were hurt in a warehouse complex on the outskirts of Nevinnomyssk, Governor Vladimir Vladimirov said, with everyone receiving outpatient treatment.In Krasnodar, ten people were injured in an attack on a warehouse complex, with three in a serious condition, the region's governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.BBC Verify has analysed footage and confirmed fires in the two locations.Reports of the strikes first emerged just after 00:00 GMT, with the Russian state news agency TASS reporting that air defences had been activated in Nevinnomyssk. Dramatic footage filmed by locals began to emerge shortly after.In both locations, the impact appears substantial, with large fires engulfing the buildings and huge columns of smoke rising into the air.Krasnodar's governor said the region was hit by a "massive attack last night", with drone debris also hitting the grounds of a company in Armavir and killing one employee. The city administration reported that an oil depot was struck, causing a fire.Drone fragments also hit two apartment buildings in Krasnodar and two homes in the village of Dinskaya, Kondratyev said. There were no injuries.Zelensky said Ukraine had struck an oil depot, as well as a tanker and four cargo ships of the Russian shadow fleet in the waters of the Sea of Azov and Black Sea.Russia has been operating a "shadow fleet" to evade international sanctions imposed on its oil exports after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.The overnight strikes mark the second targeting of Wildberries' facilities in less than a week. Recently published satellite imagery gives an indication of the damage caused to other Wildberries sites that were hit by Ukrainian strikes over the weekend.In Elektrostal, a city near the capital Moscow, three buildings were completely gutted.Unlike retail giant Amazon, Wildberries and its rival Ozon act almost entirely as marketplaces, connecting independent sellers with buyers across Russia, storing and delivering their goods, and handling payments.The recent strikes have impacted hundreds of sellers whose livelihoods depend on online marketplaces.Trader Elena, not her real name, told BBC Russian she had lost clothing she sells in the attacks, which is her only income.She said that "if there are more strikes, I probably won't manage. It's terrifying to keep loading my goods into what feels like a furnace".Additional reporting by Paul Brown, BBC Verify, Vitaly Shevchenko, and BBC Russian
Protesters in Ukraine have threatened nationwide demonstrations if Mykhailo Fedorov is not reinstated as defence minister, as President Volodymyr Zelensky scrambles to quell outrage over the decision to oust him. Over the past week, thousands in Kyiv and other cities have taken to the streets to protest against Fedorov's removal and demand the dismissal of Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine's armed forces.Army veteran Dmytro Koziatynskyi said in a social media post that if Syrskyi is not dismissed by Friday and Federov reinstated, "we will begin an open-ended nationwide protest". Ukraine is waiting, anxiously, for a resolution. Over the weekend, Ukrainian media reported that Zelensky was consulting ministers and generals in an effort to resolve the crisis.Amid a welter of rumours, the general staff was forced to deny reports that Gen Syrskyi was about to be – or even had already been – sacked. Another report suggested that Fedorov had refused an offer to return to a different position in government.Kyrylo Budanov, head of the president's office, urged Ukrainians to remain calm."The situation surrounding the latest internal changes has caused strong emotions," he wrote on Tuesday.With the noisy calls of angry protesters echoing around the tight confines of Ivana Franka Square, within earshot of the presidential palace, Budanov said the government was taking note."I understand people who express their position…..The position of society has been heard."With large numbers of demonstrators directing their anger towards Gen Syrskyi – seen by many as representing outdated Soviet-era military doctrines, Budanov, a former head of military intelligence, warned people "not to hate anyone"."The enemy is closely monitoring our every internal dispute and is waiting for us to start fighting among ourselves," he wrote."The work is under way. There will be results."On Monday, the beleaguered but usually silent 60-year-old Gen Syrskyi hit back against his critics, publishing a long defence of his record and urging readers not to focus on his widely-reported rivalry with 35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov.Despite Zelensky's claim last week that the two men could not even bear to sit in the same room, Syrskyi said it had been a surprise to learn that he had a conflict with the minister."I perceived our relationship as a working one," he wrote in an op-ed for the Militarny website."If I offended anyone, Mykhailo Albertovych [Fedorov], I'm sorry."The general said the issues of military contracts, procurement and mobilisation currently being aired in the press and boiled down to pithy slogans on pieces of cardboard carried aloft by protestors were a great deal more complicated than most people realised."Decisions on which people's lives depend are not made with slogans," he said. "Real work, not the public drama surrounding it, wins the war."Like the ousted defence minister, the commander-in-chief avoided directly personal attacks, but the object of much of his criticism was pretty clear."Presentations should not turn into self-representations," he wrote, in a thinly veiled swipe at Federov's long, detailed news conference last week."Behind each slide there should be a document, a budget and a procedure," the general went on. "Otherwise, instead of a decision the army gets disappointment."Syrskyi's problem however is that most Ukrainians, especially the younger ones, seem to trust Federov's analysis of what needs to change in order for Ukraine to win the war, not the general's.More than anyone, Federov is seen by many as driving innovation in the military, gradually improving Ukraine's chances of beating back its numerically superior enemy."Right now, the war is changing, so we need new ideas and a new structure," 44-year-old law company employee Tetiana Makarenko told me at one of the protests over the weekend."It's often said that a small Soviet army can't defeat a big Soviet army. It's time to change the mindset and start the new type of war."
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