Koledino Warehouse on Fire After Drone Strike Hits Wildberries Site Near Moscow

The Koledino warehouse is on fire at Wildberries’ largest logistics hub near Podolsk in Russia’s Moscow Oblast, in the early hours of Sunday, August 16, 2026, after a reported drone strike during a mass overnight UAV attack on the capital region. Moscow Oblast Governor Andrei Vorobyov confirmed the blaze, and the company said staff were evacuated and deliveries rerouted to other hubs.

Eyewitness footage and monitoring channels showed flames and thick smoke rising over the industrial park as emergency crews and at least one helicopter worked to contain the fire. A separate blaze was also reported at the Severnoye Domodedovo multimodal logistics complex in Domodedovo, southeast of Moscow.

Editor’s note: This article draws on statements from Moscow Oblast Governor Andrei Vorobyov, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, Wildberries press releases, Rosaviatsiya advisories, and reporting by LIGA.net, Kyiv Post, Ukrainska Pravda, and the ASTRA monitoring channel, August 16, 2026. Russian casualty and interception figures have not been independently verified.

What happened at Koledino

The fire was reported before dawn on August 16 at Wildberries’ main distribution center in the village of Koledino, part of the Podolsk urban district roughly 40 kilometers south of central Moscow.

Detail	Information
Facility	Wildberries logistics complex, described by the company as its largest warehouse in Russia
Size	More than 200,000 square meters (~2.15 million square feet)
Reported cause	Strike during an overnight drone barrage targeting Moscow Oblast
Immediate response	Evacuation, on-site firefighting, aerial water drops

Vorobyov said on Telegram that a drone strike had ignited the warehouse and that emergency services were on scene. Wildberries’ press service confirmed a fire at its Podolsk-area facility, describing it as an “ignition” caused by the attack.

The company said fire crews were working at the site, that the building had been evacuated in advance under safety protocols, and that logistics chains had been rerouted so orders could continue shipping from other facilities.

Scale of the overnight drone attack

The Koledino blaze unfolded amid one of the largest reported drone waves of the year aimed at the Moscow region.

Sergey Sobyanin, mayor of Moscow, said that from the evening of August 15 through early August 16, about 600 UAVs flew toward Moscow Oblast. He reported that 201 drones were destroyed or intercepted over the region and that three people were injured. Other Russian officials gave varying figures for drones downed closer to the city itself; monitoring outlets cited air-defense activity across Podolsk, Domodedovo, Chekhov, and neighboring districts.

Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) temporarily restricted operations at Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Zhukovsky airports while the attack was active, before lifting measures later in the morning.

Ukrainian officials rarely comment in detail on individual strikes inside Russia. Kyiv has nonetheless pursued a sustained campaign of long-range drone operations against military, industrial, and logistics targets deep inside Russian territory since 2024.

Second fire at Domodedovo

Alongside the Koledino incident, the ASTRA channel and regional media reported a concurrent fire at the Severnoye Domodedovo storage and logistics hub in the Domodedovo district.

Wildberries’ press service had not issued a separate statement on that site by mid-morning on August 16, according to early reports. The Domodedovo complex sits roughly 430 kilometers from Ukraine’s state border by road — a range consistent with other long-range Ukrainian drone strikes documented in recent months.

Why the Koledino hub matters

Wildberries is Russia’s largest online marketplace, handling a major share of domestic e-commerce deliveries. The Koledino center functions as its primary fulfillment node for the Moscow region and much of European Russia.

Impact area	Potential consequence
Order fulfillment	Delays for customers in Moscow Oblast and connected regions
Inventory	Risk of stock loss if fire damage is extensive
Network routing	Increased load on secondary warehouses while Koledino is offline

The company said it was redirecting shipments and continuing to process orders through alternate sites, but the scale of the facility — and its role as the network’s backbone — makes any prolonged outage significant for Russian online retail.

A pattern of strikes on Wildberries

Sunday’s fire is the latest in a series of incidents affecting Wildberries logistics infrastructure during the war:

• August 13, 2026: A Wildberries warehouse in Bashkortostan caught fire following reported Ukrainian attacks; satellite imagery later indicated that at least one-fifth of the complex burned.
• Late July 2026: Russian media reported that Wildberries sought Kremlin financial assistance after repeated UAV damage to its facilities.
• August 2026: Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence (GUR) said a volunteer cyber group, Cyber Corps, had conducted an operation against Wildberries’ digital infrastructure.

Wildberries has publicly denied plans to relocate its main logistics hubs outside Russia, while continuing to expand warehouses abroad, including planned facilities in Kazakhstan.

Official and corporate responses

Andrei Vorobyov focused his public messaging on emergency response at the Koledino site, confirming the strike and fire without detailing casualties or structural damage.

Sergey Sobyanin framed the night’s interceptions as a defense success and thanked air-defense crews, while reporting injuries in the broader region.

Wildberries, now part of the combined Russ & Wildberries group after a 2024 merger with Russ, emphasized worker safety and operational continuity:

“Because of the attack, a fire broke out at the company’s logistics facility in Podolsk. Fire crews are working on site. The facility was evacuated in advance in line with safety requirements. Logistics chains have been rerouted, and deliveries and order shipments are being handled at other facilities.”

Russian authorities had not released a full damage assessment by early afternoon on August 16. Monitoring channels and Ukrainian OSINT analysts circulated images suggesting extensive destruction at Koledino, but those claims could not be independently confirmed from the ground.

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Discussion

Russia’s largest e-commerce warehouse burning on Moscow’s doorstep raises questions that go beyond a single night’s headlines.

1. When long-range drones hit commercial logistics hubs far from the front line, how should the economic impact on civilians be weighed against military objectives?

Wildberries customers, warehouse workers, and small sellers all depend on a network that has now been struck repeatedly — yet the facilities also sit inside a country actively waging war.

2. Can rerouting deliveries through backup warehouses fully absorb the loss of a 200,000-square-meter hub, or will Moscow-region shoppers see lasting delays and price shifts?

The company’s statement points to continuity, but the Koledino site’s size suggests bottlenecks may be hard to hide for long.

If you order from Russian marketplaces or run a business that depends on them, what changes would you expect in the weeks ahead?

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