Tatiana Kim, CEO of Russian retailer Wildberries, stated the company is not liable for losses from recent Ukrainian drone strikes, citing force majeure.
Key facts
- •Tatiana Kim stated that Wildberries is not liable for losses caused by the strikes under the legal definition of force majeure.
- •The company claims to have faced attacks on at least a dozen warehouses, with recent incidents in Volgograd and Tatarstan.
- •Kim reported that one attack on a Yekaterinburg center involved more than 200 drones.
- •Wildberries accounts for nearly 50% of the Russian online retail market.
- •The company has begun removing search results for goods related to the war in Ukraine following the onset of the strikes.
Tatiana Kim, founder and CEO of the Russian retail giant Wildberries, issued a video address on July 31 regarding a series of Ukrainian drone strikes on the company's logistics centers. The campaign, which has targeted at least a dozen warehouses across Russia throughout late July, has prompted Kim to label the actions as terrorist attacks. She stated that the company is not legally obligated to compensate sellers for losses, classifying the strikes as force majeure.
By the numbers
Company Response and Liability
Kim argued that Wildberries is not responsible for the financial losses incurred by entrepreneurs in Russia and partner countries, including China and Kazakhstan, which she claimed amount to billions. She advised affected sellers to wait for government assistance, noting that the company has implemented deferred payment options and increased discounts for those impacted. Kim maintained that the company is actively upgrading fire safety and air defense systems to protect its facilities.
Conflict Over Military Logistics
Ukrainian officials have stated the campaign aims to disrupt Russian military logistics, citing the availability of dual-use items like bulletproof vests and fiber-optic cables on the platform. Kim dismissed these claims, asserting that Wildberries is a civilian operation comparable to global marketplaces like Amazon or Alibaba. Following the start of the drone strikes, the company began hiding certain goods from search results that reference the war in Ukraine.
Advertisement
This article was independently rewritten by ManyPress editorial AI from reporting originally published by Kyiv Independent.
