MOSCOW, Aug 19 (Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian government on Wednesday to launch a programme to rebuild commercial warehouses damaged or destroyed by Ukraine in a month of targeted attacks.
Ukraine has carried out drone strikes against at least two dozen warehouses of Russia’s top online retailer Wildberries since July 18, causing explosions and fires that have destroyed a large chunk of its storage capacity.
Putin, without naming the company, said a number of logistic sites needed rebuilding with state involvement, and told the government to work on this.
“It is essential to ensure that the restoration of damaged facilities is carried out at a qualitatively new technological level,” he said in televised comments to a conference of ministers and business leaders on the economy.
Putin said the economy was growing modestly despite external pressure — a reference to Western sanctions — and despite Ukrainian attacks on industrial and infrastructure facilities.
“Of course, such attacks have not caused, and could not cause, critical consequences. However, they do inflict damage; this is obvious, and we fully understand and acknowledge it,” he said.
Ukraine, whose own cities, ports and logistics hubs are also under attack, says its strategy is aimed at raising the costs to Russia of continuing the war that Moscow launched in February 2022.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said this week that the EU would in the coming months impose its most far-reaching sanctions yet on Russia.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Moscow bureau; Writing by Mark Trevelyan; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
