Russia Says It Downed 426 Drones Overnight as a Warehouse Burns in Tambov Region

Russia's Defence Ministry said air defences intercepted and destroyed 426 fixed-wing drones over 16 regions between 8pm Moscow time on Tuesday and 7am on Wednesday, according to Kommersant, listing Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh and Kaluga among the affected areas. TASS reported 27 drones downed over Kaluga region alone. RIA Novosti said two people were injured in Voronezh region when debris from an intercepted drone fell. Ukraine did not confirm the Russian figures, and the count comes from Russian official sources.

The barrage caused more damage than first reported. In Kotovsk, Tambov region, a warehouse operated by the online retailer Wildberries caught fire after a drone attack, and local authorities asked residents to stay indoors for two days because of the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, according to the Russian business channel Bankrollo. Tambov region Governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said the fire, which spread over more than 100,000 square metres, completely destroyed the facility, one of Wildberries' primary logistics hubs in central Russia and the second strike on the same site after a July 18 attack that killed seven employees. The same night, drones also struck and set fire to a Lukoil-operated oil refinery in Kstovo, in Nizhny Novgorod region, Militarnyi reported. The Moscow Times reported at least three deaths from the wider barrage, a man and a 14-year-old killed in a fire in Lipetsk region and a woman killed in Belgorod region, along with two people injured at the Wildberries site itself. Ukraine's Defence Ministry said on August 16 that its forces had already disabled seven of Wildberries' ten largest logistics centres, which places the Kotovsk strike inside a deliberate campaign rather than incidental damage from intercepted drones.

The timing is notable. American officials asked Kyiv to pause strikes on Moscow and northern Russian cities from Monday to Wednesday ahead of a visit to the Russian capital by the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as reported by US outlets. ABC News reported that drone attacks resumed within hours of the CIA director's departure from Moscow. A barrage of this size across 16 regions, hitting a warehouse and a refinery shortly after the visit, suggests any pause requested by Washington was either narrow in scope or did not hold once the visit ended.

Warehousing, rail and fuel infrastructure deep inside Russia now carry a war risk that did not exist two years ago. That cost appears in insurance, in duplicated inventory and in the security spending that every logistics operator must now fund.