UKRAINIAN DRONES SET FIRE TO OZON WAREHOUSE IN RUSSIA'S ADYGEA REGION

Ukrainian drones struck Russia's Adygea region early on Wednesday, setting fire to a logistics centre belonging to online marketplace Ozon in the city of Adygeisk. Drone debris also damaged a gas pipe and house windows in the village of Petrov in the Teuchezhsky district, according to Adygea's regional head, Murat Kumpilov. Kumpilov said all employees were evacuated in time and that it remained unclear whether anyone had been injured. Ozon said in a statement that the centre had been targeted by a drone, with a fire breaking out and emergency services at the scene.

An employee who spoke on condition of anonymity said the warehouse has three sections, with the attack hitting the first while the main conveyor belt sits in the second. "We were all evacuated literally four minutes before the strike," the employee said, describing a bang, cracking and grinding noises, screaming, then fire through heavy fog and a hissing believed to be chemicals stored on site. The employee said an alert on an internal terminal had warned of a missile, not a drone, differing from the accounts given by Kumpilov and Ozon. Ozon said it had removed the goods from its catalogue, with some orders cancelled, others redirected to alternative warehouses, and the site no longer accepting new deliveries.

The strike is part of a wider Ukrainian campaign against Russian logistics infrastructure, which has hit sites belonging to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer. Kyiv has alleged that Wildberries supplied components to the Russian military. The Adygeisk warehouse continued operating after the attack. The employee said they expected a further attack that night, "because, by and large, the warehouse is still intact," and had taken the day off.