On the night of 17 to 18 July 2026, Ukrainian long-range drones struck the Wildberries fulfillment centre in Elektrostal, Moscow Oblast (approximately 365,000 square metres in area, roughly 55 kilometres east of central Moscow), destroying the facility and starting a fire whose smoke plume reached Moscow city limits by Saturday morning. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the strikes in a Telegram post: the targeted facilities "were used by the aggressor to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment." Satellite imagery tracked the Elektrostal smoke spreading across approximately 2,000 square miles over the Moscow basin, a westward displacement of at least 50 kilometres consistent with wind blowing west across the basin, which AirVeto's wind map records for the overnight window.
Photo: The Guardian. Bystanders watch the Elektrostal smoke column from a road near the facility on 18 July 2026.
Ukraine's drones destroyed Wildberries' largest fulfilment centre
The Elektrostal facility held storage capacity for up to 200 million items and served as a central distribution hub for Wildberries' logistics network. Wildberries is Russia's dominant e-commerce platform by order volume - often described as Russia's Amazon - with an estimated 90 million registered users and roughly 20 million daily orders at its 2025 peak.
The same operation struck a Nafto-Service oil depot in Noginsk, also in Moscow Oblast and approximately 50 kilometres from the city centre. Authorities evacuated a maternity hospital and a residential building near the Noginsk depot.
Zelenskyy said both warehouses served Russia's drone production supply chain
In a Saturday morning Telegram post, Zelenskyy described the Elektrostal and Kotovsk facilities as "significant logistical facilities" and stated that they "were used by the aggressor to supply sanctioned components for the production of drones and navigation equipment." The framing positioned the strikes as targeting military logistics infrastructure rather than civilian retail.
Associative image. This image is not from the 18 July 2026 operation. It shows a long-range fixed-wing drone of the general type used in Ukrainian deep-strike missions against Russian territory.
The dual-use claim is reinforced by what Wildberries was openly selling. At the time of the strike, the platform listed body armour, tactical vests, quick-release rigs, and military load-bearing equipment - items that fall under Russia's active wartime procurement. A search for "бронежилет" (bulletproof vest) on Wildberries returned hundreds of listings, many marked "tomorrow" delivery to Moscow addresses.
Screenshot: Wildberries marketplace, July 2026. Search results for body armour and tactical equipment, with same-day and next-day delivery to Moscow.
This is consistent with what Ukrainian intelligence has stated about other large logistics targets struck since 2024: facilities that function as civilian retail infrastructure but also move military-grade goods through the same distribution network. Russian business media estimated preliminary losses from the combined fires at more than 100 billion rubles, approximately $1.2 billion.
A second Wildberries facility in Kotovsk, Tambov Oblast was struck in the same operation
The same overnight operation hit a Wildberries fulfillment centre in Kotovsk, Tambov Oblast, approximately 360 kilometres from the Ukrainian border and roughly 700 kilometres from the front lines. The Kotovsk facility processed up to 1.4 million items per day. The Ukrainian General Staff confirmed both logistics centres as strike targets in its overnight report.
The Elektrostal smoke column drifted 50 kilometres west toward Moscow: the wind field explains why
The fire at Elektrostal generated a smoke plume visible from Moscow city limits by early Saturday morning. Elektrostal lies approximately 55 kilometres east of central Moscow; for smoke to reach the city's eastern edge, it must travel westward across that full distance. Satellite coverage confirmed the plume spread across roughly 2,000 square miles over the Moscow Oblast basin before dispersing.
A smoke column displaced 50 kilometres in a consistent direction is a direct tracer of the low-level wind field: it moves where the wind pushes it. Westward displacement from Elektrostal toward Moscow is consistent with wind blowing west to west-southwest over the basin on the night of 17 to 18 July. This is not an unusual pattern for the Moscow region in mid-July, when high-pressure ridges over western Russia can push wind westward.
AirVeto's wind map covers the Moscow Oblast wind field for the overnight window of 17 to 18 July 2026. The surface and 850 hPa wind layers for this period and location are available on the live map. Wind reconstruction methodology is described in the methodology.
The Elektrostal and Kotovsk strikes are among the longest-range large-scale drone operations Ukraine has mounted against Russian logistics. Elektrostal is approximately 500 kilometres from the nearest point on the Ukrainian border; Kotovsk in Tambov Oblast is roughly 700 kilometres from the front lines. For other documented Ukrainian deep-strike operations covered on AirVeto, see the Omsk refinery strike brief and Ukraine's long-range drone campaign, July 2026.