On the night of 16 August, following reports of a large-scale drone attack in the Moscow Region, fires broke out at the Wildberries warehouse in Kaledino and on the premises of the «Pivnichne Domodedovo» multimodal complex. The fires were reported by Ukrainian media and OSINT analysts; eyewitness videos captured thick black smoke, flames and an explosion at one of the sites.
Briefly about the main points
- Fires were reported at two large logistics facilities in the Moscow region.
- Before the fires broke out, residents heard explosions and reported seeing drones flying overhead.
- The cluster in Kaledino was geolocated near the Wildberries distribution centre.
- The area of «Northern Domodedovo» is approximately 540,000 square metres.
Explosions and air defence activity were reported in several districts of the region
At around 03:00 local time, residents of the Moscow region reported explosions, drones flying overhead and Russian air defences in action. The sounds of explosions were heard in the areas of Domodedovo, Chekhov, Podolsk and Stupino.
Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin stated that 105 drones had allegedly been destroyed as they approached the capital. There is no independent confirmation of this figure. At the time of publication, the Ukrainian side had not reported striking logistics facilities in Kaledino and Domodedovo specifically.
The branch in Kaledino has been geolocated within the Wildberries centre
One of the fire hotspots was geolocated in the vicinity of the distribution centre Wildberries in the village of Koledino, in the Podolsk municipal district. The complex covers an area of over 200,000 square metres, and according to some estimates, this figure reaches approximately 250,000.
Footage released shows a thick plume of smoke and open flames rising above the area. Wildberries has not assessed the extent of the damage to this site in detail.
There had already been a fire near this centre at the end of July: at the time, OSINT analysts established that it was a warehouse belonging to a third-party 3PL company that was on fire, whilst the marketplace reported that its site was operating as normal.
A fire broke out at a large multi-tenant site in «Northern Domodedovo»
A second major fire broke out at the «Pivnichne Domodedovo» multimodal production and logistics complex. Footage taken by eyewitnesses shows the moment of the explosion and the subsequent intense fire.
The complex is situated approximately 11 kilometres from the Moscow Ring Road. Its total area is around 540,000 square metres, of which approximately 455,000 are taken up by warehouse space. Logistics operators, distributors and warehousing companies operate here.
It is still being established which block was affected and to what extent the fire disrupted the tenants’ work. In early August Wildberries following a fire at a site in the Vladimir Oblast redirected receipt and dispatch to other sites; the company has not yet announced any similar decisions regarding Kaledino.
