Posted on 07/24/2026 4:40:28 AM PDT by tlozo
Russia’s air defenses shot down 571 Ukrainian drones overnight on July 24 over 15 regions of Russia, occupied Crimea, and the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, the Defense Ministry reported.
Ukraine’s attack was one of the largest of the year, according to the Russian state news agency TASS. TASS put the year’s biggest strike at June 26, when the Defense Ministry reported destroying 660 drones overnight.
The total number of Ukrainian drones that targeted Russia on June 26 and July 24 remains unknown. The Defense Ministry only reports how many it shoots down. For the fourth time this week, Ukraine’s attack included warehouses belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace
Large fires broke out in the company’s logistics complex buildings in Shushary (St. Petersburg) and the Utkina Zavod industrial zone (Leningrad region) after the drone strike. The facilities have suspended operations, and a criminal case has been opened on charges of a terrorist attack. Firefighting helicopters are battling the blazes.
The strike on the Leningrad region warehouse injured several people, regional authorities said, putting the number at three. The Investigative Committee, Russia’s federal investigating authority, confirmed there were injuries but said the exact number was still being determined. Wildberries claimed that, according to preliminary information, no one was hurt at its warehouses in St. Petersburg or Leningrad region because employees had been evacuated in advance.
Two other warehouses in the Utkina Zavod industrial zone also caught fire, the independent Telegram channel Astra reported, citing photos and videos from eyewitnesses. One of the burning buildings houses a distribution center belonging to the “Petrovich” construction and trade company, while the owner of the second warehouse was not specified.
Local authorities said a warehouse at the “Severnaya” poultry farm collapsed in the village of Sinyavino, in the Leningrad region’s Kirovsky district, after a Ukrainian drone strike. The village lies near Lake Ladoga, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Wildberries warehouse.
A Wildberries sorting center in occupied Simferopol was also hit, and eyewitness photos and videos show a fire broke out there. The company initially said the sorting center “was evacuated in accordance with safety requirements.” Wildberries head Tatyana Kim later confirmed the attack, saying that strikes on the logistics complexes in St. Petersburg, the Leningrad region, and Simferopol saved only some of the floor space and goods, and that employees underwent an “expedited evacuation.”
Ukrainian monitoring Telegram channels also reported a strike on a Wildberries warehouse in Tver, though the company did not confirm the attack. Tver Governor Vitaly Korolev said a fire broke out in “the administrative building of a logistics center” in the settlement of Elevator while “repelling a drone attack.” Publicly available information shows no Wildberries warehouse in that settlement, only a pickup point. The fire has since been extinguished, and no one was injured.
Ukraine has not commented on the latest strikes. During earlier attacks on Wildberries warehouses, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian forces were targeting logistics centers that supply the Russian military with drone components, navigation equipment, and other gear. Ukraine strikes a missile manufacturer in Kirov
Residents of Kirov said there were explosions and a fire in the city. Astra and the Ukrainian monitoring Telegram channel Exilenova+, citing eyewitness photos and videos, reported that the Ukrainian strike hit the Avitek plant (JSC Vyatka Machine-Building Enterprise Avitek).
Publicly available information indicates the plant produces both military and civilian goods, including aircraft components, which Avitek makes. Ukraine claims the plant also produces surface-to-air guided missiles and target missiles, and works with other factories to manufacture “Tor” surface-to-air missile systems, Kh-101 missiles, and other military equipment. The plant is under sanctions from the U.S. and a number of other countries.
Local authorities confirmed Ukraine carried out a missile strike on the plant in Kirov, though Kirov Governor Alexander Sokolov did not specify which enterprise was hit. The attack injured people, though the exact number has not been specified.
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Ukraine's FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles struck the AVITEK military plant in the Russian city of Kirov, located 1,200 km from the Ukrainian border.
That is rich.
Why did Z fire his generals?
...According to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he has removed and replaced the entire leadership apparatus of the Ukraine military. This follows his removal of 35-year-old Mykhailo Fedorov from the defense ministry last week....
As the story is told the young Defense Minister Mykailo Fedorov was very well regarded and was the person responsible for the successful technological advancements in military drone use. 35-year-old Fedorov was a close working partner with Palantir head Alex Karp who is assisting Ukraine in their drone development and deployment.
Fedorov did not get a promotion, he was terminated???
“Russia’s air defenses shot down 571 Ukrainian drones overnight on July 24 over 15 regions of Russia, occupied Crimea, and the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, the Defense Ministry reported.”
Okay, I guess the more germane information would be how many they DIDN’T shoot down.
CC
Could be a cold, dark fall/winter in Sevastopol.
CC
ваше здоровье
Z fired ONE Soviet era trained general and replaced him with a much younger general (Mykhailo Drapatyi, 43) who is well regarded by the lower ranks, and gained a reputation fighting the Russians in the east's most intense combat areas since 2014.
The new commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces forged his reputation fighting Russia in 2014
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military forged his reputation as a daring and determined fighter in the early days of the country's battle against Russia, then spent a decade in combat assignments while steadily rising through the ranks.
Just a few more massive strikes and Ukraine will win the war. Russia will go into revolution and depose Putin. Mighty Ukraine will become a superpower! They can be the revenge of Germany—for the loss of WW II. Russia will be divided and occupied.
LOL, ordinary Russians are complaining about lost goods in burned-out warehouses, but they don't seem to grasp the cause-and-effect relationship.
Russians Complaining About Lost Goods
Ukraine's Destroyed Cities
Can you imagine Americans having their Amazon/Walmart home deliveries blown up? And who wants to bet the Russians are not getting a refund on those orders in the “sorting” facilities.
Since the rich Russians aren’t sending their sons to die in the war, perhaps taking away their Temu crap might get their attention.
After weaving another impressive made-for-TV spectacle by hitting Russian retail chain Wildberries with his patented kerosene drones, Zelensky was stupefied to discover that Russia was able to strike back thrice as hard.
But the biggest story now revolves around Russia’s reciprocal strike campaign against Ukraine’s own cargo carriers
In fact, relevant Ukrainian ministers are now in a panic over the total shutdown of Odessa ports. Minister of Agrarian Policy Taras Vysotsky announced that Odessa has been completely shut down with no ships any longer able to enter its port
Yup, won’t be long now.....
I had never heard of Wildberries before this morning. So I did a bit of research. I came across this gem:
“ On 13 January 2024, a fire broke out at the company’s warehouse in the village of Shushary near St. Petersburg (coordinates: 59°47′01″N 30°26′44″E), whose area was 70 thousand m2.[25][26] Extinguishing the fire took 30 hours. According to preliminary estimates, the amount of damage from the fire was approximately 11 billion rubles.[27] The warehouse had operated without permission from the Russian State Construction Supervision Inspectorate (Gosstroynadzor) and had never been visited by the fire inspectorate.[28]”
This has to be one of the most “Russian” things I’ve read in a while. Can you imagine Amazonian or Walmart opening a 200,000 sq foot warehouse and not having to pass fire code inspections?
For a country with so many resources and obviously bright people, they are pretty much the definition of a corrupt S-hole.
Seriously? Putin now angry, watch out!
Its going into the 5th year of Russian daily attacks on Ukraine's civilians.
Ukraine's Destroyed Cities
“when the Defense Ministry reported destroying 660 drones overnight.”
my guess is that those are just fabricated numbers, anyway ... when have the soviets ever told the truth about anything?
Russia does does not reciprocate in the sense that they can escalate. Russia is already hitting Ukraine with everything it can spare without ceding its eastern regions to the CHICOMS. If Russia could hit Ukraine any harder it would be doing so.
That’s a big-ass fire.
Russia’s air defenses shot down 571 Ukrainian drones overnight on July 24 over 15 regions of Russia, occupied Crimea, and the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, the Defense Ministry reported.
Rusain twaddle. Russians don’t even have defense equipment in most of the areas being targeted.
Only one has to get through to be effective.
That is just one of the several Wildberries building that have been hit. They seem to have lots of flamable stuff inside and once lit burn to the ground.
They sell tactical gear and drones so they are a legitimate military target.
—”a 200,000 sq foot warehouse and not having to pass fire code inspections?
A minor point.
Meters, feet; same mother, different brothers.
The Wildberries warehouse fire drills...
Elektrostal Facility (July 2026 strike): ~2.7 to 3.9 million sq ft (250,000–360,000 sq m);
Kotovsk Facility (July 2026 strike): ~1.2 million sq ft (108,000 sq m)
For comparison, the Pentagon has 7 floors; each floor is ~930,000 square feet.
They saved many millions on fireproofing and sprinklers.
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