A warehouse belonging to online retailer Ozon in Chapayevsk, Samara region, burns after a Ukrainian drone strike on Saturday (local time). [Reuters]
A warehouse belonging to online retailer Ozon in Chapayevsk, Samara region, burns after a Ukrainian drone strike on Saturday (local time). [Reuters]

Russia announced Monday (local time) a support package for Wildberries (RVB Group), the country's largest e-commerce company, after Ukrainian drone strikes inflicted heavy losses on the platform often called the "Russian Amazon."

The Russian Finance Ministry said it had drawn up measures "to support companies affected by Ukrainian UAV strikes on Wildberries facilities and to keep the business running," adding that deadlines for the company's value-added tax, income tax and insurance premium payments would be extended by about a year, to July of next year.

Tax probes and insurance premium obligations for Wildberries will also be suspended through the end of this year. Other businesses that suffered losses from the strikes on Wildberries logistics centers will be eligible for similar support — specifically, those whose losses amount to more than 5 percent of their annual sales.

Wildberries was founded by Tatyana Kim, an ethnic Korean, who built the company into Russia's largest online marketplace and became the country's wealthiest woman in the process.

As the war between Russia and Ukraine has dragged on, Wildberries has lost more than 20 warehouses to Ukrainian strikes since July 18. Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that the company had lost $5.9 billion worth of products in the attacks.

Kim welcomed the Finance Ministry announcement, calling it "a very important step for Russian businesses" and pledging to "continue providing high-quality services and to help the platform economy adapt to the new environment as quickly as possible."

Separately, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree the same day authorizing the government to take control of critical infrastructure damaged in the strikes.

According to the Tass news agency, the decree allows the Russian government to temporarily assume management of facilities in the fuel and energy, industrial, telecommunications, public utilities, transportation and logistics, and nuclear power sectors if their owners neglect security regulations or are slow to carry out necessary repairs.

Ukraine continued targeting Russian logistics infrastructure on Monday, which also marked the country's 35th independence day. According to Reuters, drone strikes hit four logistics hubs owned by Ozon, Russia's second-largest e-commerce company. Ozon's share price fell about 30 percent on the Moscow Exchange in response.


kate01@heraldcorp.com