Ukraine’s July 2026 Drone Campaign: Ryazan Strike, Fuel Crisis, and Wildberries’ Flight to Kazakhstan

The attack used Ukrainian long-range drones — specifically FP-1 deep-strike drones deployed by Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) — as part of a sustained long-range drone campaign against Russian energy and logistics infrastructure .

The Broader Campaign Against Wildberries

The Ryazan Wildberries strike was the latest in a sustained, near-daily Ukrainian drone campaign against Wildberries warehouses that began in earnest around July 19–20, 2026. Key incidents in the campaign:

• July 20 — Drones struck two large Wildberries logistics hubs in Kotovsk and Elektrostal, sparking fires and disrupting operations .
• July 22 — Logistics centers in Krasnodar and Stavropol were hit; one person killed, ten injured .
• July 23 — A warehouse was struck, and Wildberries halted operations at that facility amid a broadening campaign that had hit at least four warehouses by this point .
• July 24 — A Wildberries warehouse in the Leningrad region near St. Petersburg caught fire after a drone attack, injuring three people, disrupting Pulkovo Airport, and delaying about 50 flights . Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said this brought the total to five warehouses destroyed .
• July 25 — NPR reported that this was the tenth Ukrainian drone strike against Wildberries warehouses in one week .

The Kremlin acknowledged on July 21 that businesses were “suffering losses” from the Wildberries attacks .

Russia’s Fuel Crisis and Export Ban

The systematic Ukrainian drone campaign against Russian oil refineries — culminating with the July 6 strike on the Omsk refinery, hitting all 11 of Russia’s largest refineries — triggered a severe domestic fuel crisis:

• Gasoline output dropped to about 65% of demand by mid-July .
• Long lines at gas stations appeared across multiple regions, and some stations ran out of fuel entirely .
• CNN analysis found that nearly all of Russia’s 83 regions were experiencing gasoline shortages or supply disruptions by early July .
• Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak admitted on July 10: “We have to admit that there are problems and there is a shortage, which is why we are seeing lines. Or sometimes gas stations are working intermittently” .
• Al Jazeera reported the situation as a “deep crisis” with the government scrambling to reroute supplies and maintain price caps .

Export bans imposed:

• April 2, 2026 — Russia initially banned gasoline exports from producers until end of July to stabilize the domestic market amid seasonal demand .
• July 8, 2026 — Russia imposed a ban on diesel exports through July 31 after the drone campaign sharply reduced refining capacity .
• July 27, 2026 — Russia extended the gasoline export ban until the end of 2026, acknowledging the crisis was not resolving quickly .

Wildberries’ Response: Seeking Warehouse Space Abroad

On July 29 — the same day as the Ryazan strike — it was reported that Wildberries (operated by RWB Group) had begun urgently searching for warehouse space in Kazakhstan . Key details:

• The company is looking for facilities totaling up to 100,000 square meters (over 1 million square feet) .
• Sources told Kommersant that Wildberries is ready to occupy all available unused warehouse space in Kazakhstan .
• The move is intended to shield part of the logistics network from future drone attacks by relocating inventory outside Russia’s borders .
• Wildberries also held talks with the Russian government about possible financial support as the attacks disrupted its core operations .

The decision underscores the effectiveness of Ukraine’s dual-target strategy: by hitting both energy infrastructure and commercial logistics, Kyiv has forced Russia’s largest e-commerce company to contemplate an unprecedented relocation of its supply chain to a foreign country.