Russia struck a warehouse of Ukraine's largest online retailer Rozetka on Saturday morning. The company's co-owner Iryna Chechotkina announced this.
"This morning, a kamikaze drone hit our warehouse. At that moment, 270 people were working in the warehouse. Unfortunately, our colleague Volodymyr Melnychenko was killed. Seven more are currently in the hospital, one of them is in critical condition," Chechotkina wrote on Facebook.
Rozetka's co-owner emphasized that the company will provide medical, psychological, and financial assistance to the injured and their families.
"Unfortunately, nothing will bring a person back to life. All our thoughts and condolences are with the family. Everything else – we will rebuild and restore. Rozetka is working," Chechotkina concluded.
According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, around 11:28 on August 1, as a result of an attack by an enemy combat drone in the city of Brovary on the territory of the marketplace, a 61-year-old man was killed. Six more people were injured.
"One of the injured is in serious condition with multiple injuries, the rest are being treated on an outpatient basis after receiving medical care," the agency said in a statement.
13 vehicles were also damaged.
Logistics Under Fire
Rozetka's warehouse in Brovary is not the first civilian logistics facility to suffer from Russian attacks this summer. In recent months, losses in Ukraine's logistics sector have grown rapidly and are already approaching 2022 figures.
- On the night of May 24, Russians destroyed the warehouse of the country's largest auto parts distributor, Omega, in Kyiv region.
- On July 1, occupants destroyed part of the production and storage facilities of Snizhnaya Panda in Odesa region with ballistic missiles.
- On the night of July 2, the warehouse of Moyo electronics store network was completely destroyed, a rocket strike on Kyiv destroyed a warehouse with Philip Morris products, and the office and warehouse complex of IT distributor ERC suffered significant damage.
- On the night of July 19, a rocket strike destroyed the warehouse of GoodWine and the class A warehouse complex Amtel covering 100,000 square meters near Kyiv.
Warehouse complexes of major retailers and distributors are formally not military facilities, yet they regularly come under attack by combat drones and rockets. The question is whether Ukrainian logistics will be able to adapt to this tactic – through dispersal of inventory and backup capacity – before losses begin to noticeably affect the availability of goods on shelves.
