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Russia’s ‘Amazon’ finds sneaky way to censor their search options for military equipment

Wildberries, e-commerce
Mitriakova Valeriia / Shutterstock.com

They still sell military equipment, but they have removed the category “Everything for the Special Military Operation”.

Ukraine has pummeled logistics hubs belonging to the Russian equivalent of Amazon, Wildberries, over the past week, with seven warehouses being struck since July 18.

Ukraine claims that the e-commerce giant is selling military equipment, and thus is a part of the supply line for the Kremlin’s forces with things like drone components, navigation equipment and battle gear.

On July 26, The Moscow Times reported that Wildberries has now “censored” its search results, meaning that when you search for “Everything for the SVO” (SVO is the abbreviation for Special Military Operation in Russian), no search results pop up.

According to the newspaper, that exact tag previously had over 200,000 products.

But as it turns out, Wildberries has not stopped selling the equipment.

Hidden in plain sight

Despite the sudden keyword blackout, the military products have not actually disappeared from the retail platform.

Bulletproof vests and protective helmets sit listed under sports gear, while FPV drone components hide inside consumer electronics sections.

According to reporting from news outlet Vot Tak, slight search variations still surface combat first aid kits, tactical radios, and camouflage backpacks.

The marketplace completely dominates domestic online retail, controlling nearly half of Russia’s total e-commerce market.

Warehouses under fire

This sudden digital cleanup follows a heavy wave of Ukrainian drone strikes against major logistics hubs across Russia and occupied Crimea.

At least ten vital distribution centers came under attack within a single week, causing extensive structural damage to the company’s network.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the facilities were hit because they were used “to supply the Russian army with drone components, navigation equipment, and gear.”

Wildberries founder Tatyana Kim condemned the strikes as “an act of international terrorism.”

Targeting supply lines

The physical damage was both swift and costly for the firm.

Russian business newspaper Kommersant estimated that the attacks destroyed ten percent of the company’s total warehouse space, carrying restoration costs of 35.5 billion rubles.

German publication Der Spiegel noted that Russian military forces have long bombed Ukrainian civilian postal hubs like Nova Poshta.

In turn, pro-war Russian commentators acknowledged that the strikes on Wildberries served as a direct media response to those ongoing attacks.

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