Wildberries’ direct losses from Ukrainian strikes on its warehouses may exceed 100 billion rubles, a market have lost as much as 200 billion rubles. The scale of the losses is due in part to the fact that up to 10 percent of the products listed on Wildberries’ platform were owned by the company itself
The Bell predicts that Wildberries will remain unprofitable for years, as the marketplace’s turnover falls and sellers migrate to other platforms. Aent itself from scratch” and take on new debt on top of the more than 1.3 trillion rubles it already exceeded by the end of 2025
A drop in turnover of at least a quarter wouldn’t just dent Wildberries’ performance figures. It would also threaten to unravel the company’s entire business model, another market
Here’s how the money flows at the marketplace: Wildberries collects payment from a buyer immediately after a purchase but pays the seller only much later, and in the meantime, that cash sits in the company’s accounts as working capital. The scheme works fine as long as turnover keeps growing. Once turnover falls, the inflow of new money no longer covers expenses, the company starts racking up losses, and payments to sellers get delayed even further, leaving sellers to face their own turnover problems. As of early August, damage to Wildberries sellers from Ukraine’s strikes on the warehouses alone was estimated at 215–280 billion rubles, and further attacks have followed since.
Both of The Bell’s sources say Russian authorities won’t let the company collapse or go bankrupt, though the plan to rescue Wildberries remains unclear. The government’s political priority, The Bell said, is supporting sellers. The Reuters news agency reported that government meetings have also discussed preferential loans for the company itself, potentially through VTB. According to the financial news agency Bloomberg, authorities are weighing a support package for sellers that could include credit or tax holidays and other benefits, among other things.
The Bell’s sources believe Wildberries itself could also receive preferential loans. “But where would the money for that come from? Turn on the printing press?” one of them said. Russia’s budget deficit for the first half of 2026 came to 5.7 trillion rubles, 1.5 times the annual plan.
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