Ukraine smashes Russian port and Putin's family factory blitzed as Wildberries blood feud revealed

We're starting with the latest strike on a Wildberries warehouse, this time in Salavat, some 1,200 kilometers inside Russian territory.

A logistics hub once again going up in flames.

Russian officials reporting that fires have broken out in two industrial areas and that helicopters are on the scene assisting firefighters trying to put out those blazes.

We know that Wildberries hubs, logistics plants, warehouses burn very, very well.

Uh, officials around Salavat saying 21 drones were downed, Ukrainian drones were downed.

We don't know how many got through.

This strike brings to 24, at least 24, the number of these Wildberries warehouses that have been hit, and that includes this week another strike on the night of the 10th to the 11th of August on a warehouse in Voronezh.

Now, to really understand the c- where Wildberries sits in Russian society and perhaps more importantly in Vladimir Putin's orbit, I thought we'd do a little bit of a dive into an extraordinary blood feud, uh, that has pitted the family that own it and their backers against each other.

We've talked before about how this is a vast $9 billion company, a linchpin in many ways of the Russian economy that spans online shopping, home deliveries, and banking.

But there's a backstory I think you'd like to know.

In September 2024, two people were killed, 30 people were arrested, and the founder of Wildberries' estranged husband was charged with murder after he tried to storm the company's headquarters in Moscow.

He tried to get in.

He was blocked.

Two security guards were shot dead.

This was an attempt by the founder, Tatiana Kim's estranged husband, Vladislav Bakalchuk, to get into the building.

Now, to understand why this happened, we have to go back a few months.

This is not really a fight between husband and wife.

In fact, this is a proxy war, if you like, between the Chechen warlord, Ramzan Kadyrov.

And you'll remember he was responsible for sending his soldiers to invade Ukraine in the first phase of that full-scale invasion, and they were linked to some of the most horrific and wanton war crimes in areas like Irpin' and Bucha northwest of the capital Kyiv.

It's a dispute between Kadyrov and the Dagestan senator, Suleiman Kerimov, uh, who is, was estimated to be worth about $21 billion before the war in Ukraine.

But his wealth has, uh, according to some reports, plummeted at least in half.

He's still a significant billionaire.

Both of these men, in different ways, staunch Putin enforcers.

They owe a lot of their wealth and influence to his ongoing patronage.

They're powerful in their own right, but being wealthy and powerful in Russia relies to some extent on the president's patronage.