Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said its Cyber Corps had hit the digital infrastructure of Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, disrupting customer service, destabilizing payment processing, and flooding contact centers with complaints, including from users unable to complete payments. Ukrainian officials were explicit about the intent: the cyberattack was timed to “reinforce the effect” of a physical drone strike on Wildberries facilities inside Russia.
Cyber and Drones, Working Together
This isn’t cyber warfare replacing the physical fight. It’s cyber warfare being layered on top of it. Ukraine has spent the past year hammering Russian oil refineries and logistics infrastructure with drones; hitting Wildberries’ digital backbone at the same time as a drone strike on its physical facilities means Russian consumers feel the disruption twice, through two completely different channels, in the same window.
That’s the actual innovation here: coordinating a cyberattack with a kinetic strike so the combined effect on ordinary Russians’ daily lives, being unable to track a package or pay for one, is bigger than either action alone. Military planners have talked about “hybrid warfare” for years; this is closer to what routine execution of it actually looks like.
🔥 How Ukraine’s Wildberries Strikes Disrupt Russia’s Economy:
What do you think? Is coordinating cyberattacks with physical strikes on civilian retail infrastructure a legitimate way to pressure a wartime economy, or does it cross a line into targeting civilians? Let us know your thoughts in the comments on BeezLoop.com!
Related coverage: Washington Post.
Related from BeezLoop: Overnight Strikes Kill 19 Across Russia and Ukraine, Ukraine's 600-Drone Barrage on Moscow Shows the New Math of Air Defense and Ukraine Hit Moscow With Over 1,000 Drones.
