“The war has now reached us”

On the night of July 18, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the two largest Wildberries warehouses - in Elektrostal near Moscow and Kotovsk, a small city in the Tambov region. As a result of both attacks, 80 people were injured. Eight warehouse employees in Kotovsk were killed. "Bereg" went to Tambov.

“The injured private soldiers are coming in droves”

A resident of Tambov is standing near the building of the regional Duma, in her hands is a purple bag of Wildberries with the slogan: “People choose.”

I call Yandex Taxi to go to the burned-out warehouse of the marketplace in Kotovsk, a city of regional significance, which until 1940 was a village and was part of Tambov.

The application finds the driver, but he resets the order. This is repeated twice. Maybe it’s the price: for half an hour of travel the app asks for only 130 rubles.

In the parking lot near the city council, a car with checkered pieces is waiting for passengers. The taxi driver also refuses to go to the warehouse: “I won’t go there, sorry. There are cops there. They can get to the bottom of everyone, but I don’t need it.”

I go to the Wildberries pick-up point not far from the Duma to check how orders are being issued after the attack on the warehouse.

“It’s mostly students who choose our university because there are technological and humanities [institutes] nearby. But not only them, of course. They order everything from python to loaf,” says a young employee dressed almost casually, in checkered loose pants and a graphic T-shirt. It's unbearably hot at the delivery point.

A cheerful woman of about 70 comes into the pickup point and asks if her order has arrived - according to the customer, she has been waiting for it for more than 10 days. The pickup point employee checks the order number: only part has arrived. “As much as possible,” complains the customer, picking up her package.

“And they need it urgently,” the employee at the delivery point grumbles almost in a whisper after she leaves. — You saw on the Internet that the employees of the pick-up point already get it from customers. And after the blow it’s even worse: “Why is the order delayed? Why was the order cancelled? Yes, I’ll sue you!” Judge, I think. And I ask myself: don’t they read the news?”

According to the employee, the attack on the warehouse led to delivery delays. Some orders were cancelled, but “there was no disaster.”

She says that sellers selling on Wildberries hope to sue for compensation, and shares the contact of a local lawyer who helps individuals and individual entrepreneurs in property disputes.

“Since July 18, the schedule has been jam-packed—victims of the private security forces are coming in droves,” says lawyer Mikhail (name changed). “Before the attacks, the city lived and did not notice [the war]. And now, when it affected someone’s salary, someone’s business, orders... Well, you understand.”

The main question that entrepreneurs who traded on Wildberries ask him is whether it is possible to sue the marketplace for money lost due to the fire.

Wildberries management announced payments to the families of the victims and victims who are in serious condition (two million and one million rubles, respectively). The governor of the Tambov region, Evgeny Pervyshov, also promised to pay 1.5 million rubles from the regional budget to the family of each deceased, 600 thousand rubles to the seriously wounded and 300 thousand rubles to the injured warehouse employees.

The head of the marketplace, Tatyana Kim, said that the company is “working on the volume of payments to sellers and other financial support measures.” According to Wildberries, sellers will not receive compensation. Instead, the marketplace offers a set of dubious benefits. These include free delivery of goods to regional warehouses, preferential loans and deferments on existing ones (but they must be taken from WB Bank). The site administration also promises to provide free advice on insurance (the service will be provided by Sber).

Lawyer Mikhail believes that it is possible to sue the marketplace for compensation: “We need to litigate the wording of the force majeure offer in the new contract. The injured party can challenge the new contract and request payments, since the site is responsible for the goods placed on its premises. But this is a trial. It's a long time."

“There’s nowhere to go, understand? The warehouse was blown up"

In a coffee shop located in one of the city shopping centers, the only lactose-free milk available today is almond milk - from the nearest grocery store. “Usually we also have coconut and banana on the menu, but we ordered them from WB ( Wildberries - Berega’s note ), a certain manufacturer. They didn't deliver. I had to run to Pyaterochka,” explains the barista.

On a bench in the pedestrian part of the central Kommunalnaya Street - they call it Tambov Arbat - a dark-skinned man in an alcoholic T-shirt is sitting. Right on the street, he takes off his socks and rubs his swollen, calloused feet. I suggest a patch.

He thanks and says: it’s all about the uncomfortable shoes they were given on duty. He is a mechanic by profession, but works part-time as a loader - they are needed more often. He is not afraid of hard work.

The shift worker arrived in Tambov last week to work. On Sunday, July 19, he was supposed to go to a warehouse in Kotovsk along with other shift workers. “I didn’t see the news, there was no time for the Internet,” explains Bereg’s interlocutor. — I come to my people, we should have already left by bus for Kotovsk. They smoke, there is no car. And they tell me: 'We're not going anywhere. Don't you know shit? It's fucked up there. There's nowhere to go, understand? They blew up [the warehouse], you sons of bitches!'"

The shift worker covers the calluses with a plaster, puts on socks and shoes and adds: ““Sons of bitches,” he said correctly. People were killed. And now we have nothing to eat until we find a new job.”

Between Arbat and the city council building, on the alley, two college students are sitting. They say that after Saturday’s attack on Kotovsk they got scared. “Everyone in the city, it seems to me, [was scared]. There were those who were angry, but mostly fear,” says the girl in the black T-shirt. - What should we do now? We're scared too. Sirens howl at night."

They don’t want to leave Tambov - they don’t see the point. And they add that posts about attacks on Kotovsk allegedly “disappear” from local public pages on social networks. Whether this is so is difficult to say. In some city groups, publications about the warehouse strike can still be found.

On Tambov Arbat, a smiling musician of about 60 plays the electric guitar “Wind of Change” by the Scorpions. On the bench opposite him, an elderly Tambov woman in a light linen suit with a scarf around her neck is listening to him.

Very nearby, a bronze sculpture of a merchant’s wife that resembles her rests on a pedestal. On both sides of the street there are one-story pre-revolutionary houses, and we start talking about architecture.

“They were built by the merchants who lived here.” Here they traded, lived, stored goods,” says a Tambov resident.

— There were no huge logistics centers then.

“And there were no drones then.” Our ancestors lived well, you know,” the interlocutor answers thoughtfully.

Her son, a military engineer, is now on a business trip in Kursk. He should have returned home by now, but the work trip was extended for another week.

The Kursk region experiences heavy attacks in July, but a woman from Tambov in a linen suit finds her son’s business trip has its advantages: “It’s better than being in a trench. But he can’t be in the trench. He's got brains!"

The federal channels that Berega's interlocutor watches ignored news about attacks on warehouses in Elektrostal and Kotovsk near Moscow, but she still heard about them from neighbors. “The war has now reached us,” her friend, who sat down on the bench, suddenly intervenes in the conversation. A Tambov woman in a linen suit shakes her head in disagreement.

“Isn’t it so? Why are you shaking your head? - continues the second. — You love your Putin, and this is because of him. We lived peacefully, but now they are hitting us. Are you satisfied? Stop shaking your head!”

This is not the first time that the friends have argued about politics and even agreed not to raise this topic. But today, apparently, they couldn’t restrain themselves.

- Yes, I love Putin! And what? Are you going to shoot me, or what? — the Tambov woman in a linen suit responds emotionally.

“I could have shot you, do you believe it?” Here you are to the Kremlin wall - and to be shot!

—Was it better before? With this drunkard [Boris Yeltsin].

- I think yes. At least he was a real person. I believed him. And he had freedom. And we believed in ourselves so much that there would always be freedom now... That we chose a KGB officer. It was a mistake, a big mistake. And don't look at me like that.

The friends agree on one thing: the city will no longer live as before. Until July 18, Tambov was not subject to Ukrainian attacks, they explain, so people are tense and scared.

But Bereg’s interlocutors are wrong. Tambov and the region were already in the news, city authorities reported that Ukrainian UAVs were shot down by air defense forces. In December 2025, after a drone attack, the Nikiforov oil depot in the village of Dmitrievka, 50 kilometers from the regional center, caught fire. Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov then linked the fire to the “fall of UAV debris.”

And at the beginning of June 2026, in Michurinsk, an hour’s drive from Tambov, the Progress plant caught fire as a result of an attack. It produces equipment for aircraft and missile control systems and has already been subject to Ukrainian attacks several times - in 2024, 2025 and 2026.

* * *

Two guys are sitting at the table at Tasty and Period. The first, dressed in a blue T-shirt, writes something on his phone and listens to a friend.

“Write the signs of that guy in the comments,” he advises, leaning over his friend’s phone to see the screen.

- Why should I write any signs? I'll attach his photo and that's it. Write the text with signs... It’s easier to see it once. His friends will definitely recognize him from the photo,” the first one answers irritably.

The guy in the blue T-shirt - Pavel - is looking for a colleague with whom he worked at a warehouse in Kotovsk on the night of the attack. In a local group, he says that together with another warehouse employee, they “dragged him until the ambulance arrived.” He asks his colleague to respond.

Officially, the authorities reported that as a result of the attack and the resulting fire at a warehouse in Kotovsk, eight people were killed and 25 were injured.

After the attack on Kotovsk, no mourning was declared in the region. But the concerts that were supposed to take place in the city park and several other entertainment events were canceled .

Wildberries have already announced that the warehouse will resume operations on July 23. On the evening of July 20, residents of the Tambov region brought flowers to the memorial stone, which was placed near a warehouse in Kotovsk in honor of the start of its construction.