Russia's overnight missile-and-drone barrage on Kyiv and its surrounding region on 5 August destroyed the warehouses and production sites of several of Ukraine's largest retail and logistics companies, killed 17 people and wounded 44 more, and laid bare the country's dwindling ability to intercept ballistic missiles, according to Ukrainian officials.

Russia's main target on 5 August: Ukraine's warehouses

Russia has spent this year pushing its air war toward the ballistic missiles that Ukrainian defenses struggle most to stop, launching more of them than Ukraine can shoot down while its Patriot interceptor stocks run dry, and pairing them with drone waves that keep reaching homes, transit and the warehouses that feed the country.

Three Russian ballistic missiles destroyed the largest distribution center operated by Rozetka, Ukraine’s biggest online retailer, near Kyiv overnight on 5 August. Rozetka co-founder Iryna Chechotkina said the warehouse had processed more than 100,000 online orders each day and was beyond repair.

By dawn, the attack had torn through the civilian logistics network moving parcels, groceries, household goods and construction materials across the capital and its suburbs. At least 17 people were killed and 44 injured in the broader barrage, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In its 5 August 2026 strikes, Russia destroyed a sorting center owned by Nova Poshta, Ukraine’s largest private parcel carrier, as well as major facilities operated by Epicentr, the country’s largest home-improvement retailer. Sites belonging to Novus and Fozzy Group, two major Ukrainian grocery retailers, were also damaged.

Nova Poshta said cluster munitions—bombs that scatter smaller explosives across a wide area—destroyed its Kyiv sorting center. Three people were killed and eight injured. Two of those killed were drivers for a partner carrier, while the third worked for a contractor.

Epicentr lost two major warehouse complexes and much of its ceramic-tile production. One employee was killed, and three were hospitalized at the company’s complex in Kalynivka. Its logistics center on Kyiv’s Viskozna Street burned completely, while another Russian missile destroyed the factory's kilns.

During a separate overnight attack on 3-4 August, a Russian drone destroyed a Biosphere warehouse storing household and personal-care products in Dnipro, although all employees reached shelter and no one was injured.

The Kyiv attack extended beyond commercial facilities. Russia's attack killed eight people waiting for a delayed train at Kvitneva station, a commuter stop near Brovary, east of Kyiv. Missiles also hit homes and offices, damaged an ambulance and caused an ammonia leak at a non-residential site.

An earlier Euromaidan Press report detailed the destruction across Kyiv and the surrounding region.

Why Ukraine intercepted none of the missiles

Russia launched 24 ballistic missiles and four Zircon and Oniks anti-ship missiles, high-speed weapons designed primarily to strike naval targets but also used against Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine intercepted none of the 28, the Ukrainian Air Force said. Air defenses shot down or electronically disabled 98 of the 115 accompanying drones.

Missiles and 17 drones struck 26 locations, while debris fell at another six.

Zelenskyy said ballistic-missile interceptors could have saved those killed. Ukraine’s stocks of Patriot missiles, its only reliable defense against Russian ballistic weapons, are critically depleted. 

A global interceptor shortage means manufacturers cannot produce advanced air-defense missiles fast enough to meet demand.

Russia exploited the same gap on 1 August 2026, when it fired 27 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and Ukraine intercepted only one.

Moscow may point to recent Ukrainian strikes on Wildberries logistics centers to frame its attacks as retaliation. Ukrainian officials say the Russian retailer transports military goods, including drone components and navigation equipment. The Kremlin denies that Wildberries carries military cargo.

Ukraine’s acting Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha rejected any comparison between the attacks. "Russian attacks cannot be justified by anything, including any actions by Ukraine," he said.

Russia killed a warehouse worker at Ukraine's largest online retailer with a guided jet-powered drone. On the morning of 1 August, Russia struck a Rozetka building where 270 people were working at the time with a jet-powered Shahed, targeting company employee Volodymyr Melnychenko and hospitalizing seven others, co-owner Iryna Chechotkina said.

Hitting Rozetka extends a Russian pattern of striking the retail and delivery infrastructure that Ukrainians depend on. Russia has repeatedly struck the sorting centers of Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta, and now the warehouses of Ukraine's largest online store.

The operator aimed at the parking lot

The strike was guided and deliberate, not a stray. Presidential adviser Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov said the target was minibusses parked at the warehouse, which were hit by a jet-powered Geran-4 drone whose operator clearly saw where he was aiming, so there was no error in the strike.

Beskrestnov says the warehouse itself was not the point

The warehouse held nothing worth a missile, and Russia knew it, Beskrestnov stated. The expert, who has tracked Russia's drone tactics throughout, said large warehouses hold no goods, that Russian agents watching the sites know this, and that the decision to launch jet-Shahed strikes is made at a lower level than the choice of targets for ballistic missiles.

Wider perspective

Earlier this month, Ukraine expanded its deep-strike campaign from primarily targeting oil refineries and fuel depots in Russia to also targeting Wildberries' warehouses, Russia's largest e-marketplace. The campaign aims at undermining Russia's wartime economy that sustains the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian drones have already destroyed eight warehouses of Wildberries in July, about 15.4% of its storage, according to Euromaidan Press reporting. That campaign was itself Ukraine's answer to years of Russian strikes on Nova Poshta and Ukrposhta depots. The Center for Countering Disinformation said on 27 July that the marketplace was selling goods for the Russian military.