Ukrainian drones struck across four Russian regions before dawn on 4 August, setting fires at a Rosneft oil refinery and targeting two logistics hubs of Russia's largest online retailer, Militarnyi reported. The raid reached Samara, Leningrad, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod oblasts, hitting both the fuel that powers Russia's military and the warehouses that Kyiv says supply its army. Russian regional officials confirmed damage while claiming air defenses repelled much of the attack.

Syzran refinery burns again

Ukrainian drones attacked the Syzran oil refinery in Samara Oblast overnight more than 800 km from the war zone in Ukraine, and Militarnyi geolocated the rising smoke to the plant. A drone-danger alert went up in the region after 1 a.m., and residents then reported explosions in the city before a column of smoke climbed over the refinery.

The plant belongs to Rosneft and processes more than 8.5 million tons of crude a year, more than 3% of Russia's national total. It turns out gasoline, diesel, aviation kerosene, and bitumen, and supplies fuel to Samara, Saratov, and Penza oblasts as well as parts of central Russia. It also feeds airfields and military units of Russia's Central and Southern military districts. The refinery sits more than 800 km from Ukraine's border.

Ukraine's Defense Forces have hit this refinery many times before. Drones struck it overnight on 11-12 July, starting a large fire that analysts assessed reached every primary crude-processing unit. Samara Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said a fire from the attack in the region was being extinguished.

Astra says residents of Kstovo in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast reported a fire after the attack, though the struck object there stayed unclear. The city is home to a Lukoil oil refinery about 800 km from Ukraine.

Warehouses near St. Petersburg and Moscow

In the morning, Ukrainian drones hit a logistics compound near Krasny Bor in the Tosnensky district of Leningrad Oblast, roughly 820 km from Ukraine's northern border. Eyewitnesses filmed a heavy fire, and Wildberries confirmed a blaze at its facility there.

Its Krasny Bor site covers 154,000 square meters, one of the retailer's largest surviving logistics hubs in the region. Ukrainian drones burned two others in Leningrad Oblast on 24 July.

Leningrad Oblast Governor Alexander Drozdenko claimed air defenses downed 17 drones overnight and confirmed damage to the warehouse zone near Krasny Bor. An OSINT analyst at the Russian Telegram channel Astra, reviewing eyewitness video, placed the smoke over a site holding two complexes: the Wildberries hub and a Lenta depot of 70,000 square meters. The analyst said the damaged complex could belong to either.

Explore further

Oil refinery, strategic airbase, and drone facilities: Overnight strikes hit key pillars of Russia’s war effort

Drones also struck Chekhov near Moscow, about 400 km from Ukraine, where Astra identified the likely target as a Wildberries warehouse. Moscow Oblast Governor Andrei Vorobyov confirmed the strike and claimed five people were killed and six injured. 

Why the warehouses

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously explained that Ukraine strikes what he calls "Russia's AliExpress" because the marketplace supplies occupying forces with sanctioned components for drones and navigation equipment. Ukraine's military command lists Wildberries among its long-range targets as a retailer that also moves non-lethal military gear.

Ukraine's Defense Forces began striking Wildberries logistics sites on 18 July. The company tightened rules on 3 August, allowing warehouse staff only button phones without cameras, after employees filmed the strikes and shared the footage.

Ukrainian drones struck logistics and industrial sites across Russia's Moscow Oblast on the morning of 28 July, according to monitoring channels and local authorities. Fires broke out near Podolsk and in Chekhov, while Russia's biggest online marketplace said its own warehouse kept running. Russian officials claimed air defenses downed hundreds of drones.

Aimed at Russia's Amazon, the hit landed next door

Early on 28 July, Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+ started reporting drone activity over Moscow Oblast. Over the next hours it posted photos, video, and its own read of the target. The channel judged the strike as a likely attempt on the large Wildberries logistics center in Koledino, south of Podolsk. Air-defense fire, it said, probably pushed the hit onto the third-party warehouse right beside it.

Russian news Telegram channel Astra identified the burning building as that 3PL site. Residents of nearby Podolsk reported explosions and a fire that same morning. Supernova+ backed the account of a hit on the 3PL warehouse.

The operator's own site lists the warehouse at about 10,000 m². It stores goods, packs orders, labels and ships for clients that include Auchan, Magnit, Lenta, Pyaterochka, Fix Price and Detsky Mir. Next to it sits what one industry listing calls the marketplace's largest distribution center, over 200,000 m². Wildberries' press service said the complex was working normally. Monitoring channels still believe the intended target was the Wildberries hub. 

Podolsk district head Grigory Artamonov played it down, reporting only a damaged fence at a private house and a fire in a wooded area.

A rubber plant on fire in Chekhov

Video published by Exilenova+ also showed drones hitting an enterprise in Chekhov. More footage captured a fire after a drone reportedly struck a smokestack on a plant's grounds. Astra's analysis placed the blaze at the Chekhov Regeneration Plant. Residents had reported explosions overnight.

The plant recycles worn car tires into regenerate, rubber crumb and powder, and makes more than 600 rubber goods. By its own account, it is one of Russia's biggest producers in the field. Chekhov municipal head Mikhail Sobakin confirmed the attack, saying rubber had caught fire at the plant and crews were putting it out, with several buildings in the city damaged.

Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin first claimed 12 drones downed near the capital around 5 a.m. He later put more than 390 aircraft over the region between 20:30 and 6:30, saying air defenses hit most "on distant approaches" and 81 near Moscow. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses downed 356 Ukrainian drones overnight, across a dozen regions plus the Moscow area, occupied Crimea and the Azov Sea. None of the figures could be independently checked.

Explore further

Ukraine went for Russia’s “AliExpress” again—its next-door warehouse was ablaze

Deep-strike campaign continues

Since 18 July, Ukrainian drones have hit at least ten of the marketplace's centers, in Elektrostal, Kotovsk, Krasnodar, Nevinnomyssk, Voronezh and Yekaterinburg. The previous successful strike came on 24 July, at complexes near St. Petersburg, in Leningrad Oblast and in occupied Simferopol. On 20 July, drones struck the Wildberries center in Podolsk and an oil depot in nearby Lvovsky, both catching fire, as the effort widened from oil refineries to retail and industry.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has earlier explained the strikes on the "Russian AliExpress" by saying Moscow uses the platform to bring in sanctioned drone and navigation parts.