At least five people were killed and 10 injured when a Ukrainian drone struck a warehouse in Novoselki, Chekhov — about 69km south of the Kremlin — overnight on August 4, 2026, according to Moscow region governor Andrei Vorobyov (BBC). Vorobyov wrote on Telegram that seven of the 10 injured were in moderate condition and one in serious condition. Ukrainian media reported that the warehouse was linked to Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer and a company often called the "Russian Amazon."

The Chekhov strike was part of a coordinated overnight campaign. Ukrainian drones hit at least seven Wildberries logistics hubs — large storage and distribution centers — across Russia, including facilities in Moscow, Tambov, Krasnodar, and Stavropol (RFE/RL). Local officials confirmed that Wildberries warehouses were also struck in the St Petersburg and Tver regions, and Wildberries itself confirmed its St Petersburg facility was hit. Authorities in St Petersburg and the Leningrad region said 33 drones were shot down during the attacks on warehouses there (AP). A Wildberries warehouse in the Samara region, roughly 800km from the Russian-Ukrainian border, was also targeted, according to the local governor (Arkansas Online).

Russia's defence ministry said it intercepted and destroyed 320 drones overnight (BBC). At the same time, Russia launched its own strikes against Ukrainian targets. Ukraine's State Emergency Service said an 89-year-old woman was killed and seven injured — including girls aged two and 12 — in a Russian strike on Mykolaiv. Two people were injured in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, and a food warehouse was set on fire in Dnipro (BBC).

Kyiv has been striking Wildberries facilities for weeks. Ukraine says the retailer's depots are used to supply the Russian military, a claim Moscow denies. The pace of attacks has escalated since mid-July. Reuters reported on July 18 that Ukrainian drone attacks killed seven warehouse workers in Russia and sparked a fire at a Moscow region oil depot (Reuters). On July 29, Moscow-backed governor Sergei Aksyonov said two people were killed and five injured in overnight drone strikes (Reuters). Two more Wildberries warehouses were struck around July 30, with fires breaking out at both sites (Reuters).

The August 4 wave stands out for its geographic reach. Hitting seven hubs from Stavropol in the south to Samara in the east and St Petersburg in the north means Ukraine stretched Russian air defenses — the systems designed to detect and destroy incoming threats — across an enormous area. Think of it as a multi-pronged assault: by attacking many points at once, you force the defender to spread its resources thin. The 320 claimed intercepts, if accurate, indicate both the scale of the Ukrainian drone launch and the strain on Russia's counter-drone systems. Still, enough drones got through to kill five people and ignite fires at multiple logistics hubs, which suggests the interception rate did not fully protect the sites Kyiv was aiming at.

The broader context here is the strategic logic behind targeting Wildberries specifically. If Ukraine's intelligence is correct that these warehouses serve dual purposes — meaning they handle both civilian retail goods and military supplies — then striking them degrades the supply chains that Kyiv says feed Russian forces. Moscow's denial keeps the claim contested, but the approach of disrupting rear-area logistics (the supply lines behind the front lines) through a civilian-branded network follows a well-established pattern in long-range strike campaigns. The deaths at Chekhov also show that despite Russian air defense claims, these strikes are producing lethal outcomes for civilian workers, a dynamic that will shape how both sides manage public messaging.

Domestic security in Russia is under pressure beyond the drone war. On August 1, a homemade bomb carried by a woman killed at least three people and injured 21 near an upscale restaurant in central Moscow (Reuters). That incident was unrelated to the drone campaign, but it compounds the sense of vulnerability in the capital region and raises questions about internal security coordination even as the front-line drone war intensifies.

The exchanges on August 4 follow a clear trajectory. Ukraine is deepening its long-range strike campaign against Russian logistics infrastructure, and Russia is responding with strikes on Ukrainian civilian and port infrastructure. Both sides are operating at a pace that exceeds anything seen in the first years of the war, and each escalation cycle is widening the geography of damage.