On the night of August 26, the Ukrainian Defense Forces delivered a repeat strike on the Wildberries logistics warehouse in Kotovsk, Tambov Oblast. According to RBC-Ukraine, citing the ASTRA Telegram channel, the attack triggered a massive fire on the facility's grounds, and by the evening of August 26, as of 18:00 MSK, heavy smoke was still rising near the building, which local residents continued to capture in photos and videos.
Timeline of the strike and the state of the facility
Evening footage of the warehouse damage in Kotovsk was provided by a Telegram channel subscriber: the frames show fire-engulfed openings and billowing clouds of black smoke rising above the roof. The Governor of Tambov Oblast stated that the fire, which broke out as a result of the Ukrainian strike on the night of August 26, completely destroyed the Wildberries warehouse. Thus, the facility, which had already been disabled after the first attack, has been lost entirely.
Authorities' response and the threat to residents
On the morning of August 26, the mayor of Kotovsk district addressed the city's residents, asking them not to leave their homes for the next two days. The reason is the danger of carbon monoxide poisoning, which is released when warehouse stockpiles and building materials burn. This decision effectively turned the area surrounding the warehouse into a restricted-access zone for as long as it takes firefighters to contain the blaze.
Contradictory data
Public statements from the two sides disagree on the details of the attack. The Governor of Tambov Oblast reported that Russian air defense allegedly shot down 16 Ukrainian drones, while only three drones actually hit the warehouse in Kotovsk. The Ukrainian side, by contrast, presents the event as the result of a precise hit on the target, which is corroborated by photographs of the large-scale fire. The discrepancy in the number of devices involved and the assessed success of the strike makes an exact reconstruction of the night's events impossible without an independent investigation; both versions are presented openly.
Context: repeat attack and the July losses
The night of August 26 marked the second strike on the Wildberries logistics hub in Kotovsk. The warehouse was first hit on July 18: at that time, seven workers died in the fire, and the facility's operations were temporarily suspended. According to RBC-Ukraine, since the beginning of July, Ukrainian strikes have disabled eight of the ten largest Wildberries warehouses in Russia, systematically undermining the logistics infrastructure of the largest marketplace.
