Ukraine Hits 6 Ozon Warehouses in 3 Days; Putin Signs Seizure Decree

Kyiv, Ukraine – Ukraine has targeted four more warehouses of Ozon – Russia's second-largest online retailer after Wildberries, which has itself been crippled by Ukrainian attacks – as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing the state to seize companies deemed too poorly protected from Ukrainian drone strikes.

Ozon's shares fell by almost 30% on Monday after it reported strikes in southern Russia that brought to six the number of its facilities targeted within three days. Ozon said a logistics hub in Makhachkala in Dagestan was on fire and had halted operations after a drone attack in which "several people" were injured. Another was on fire in Enem on the outskirts of the city of Krasnodar, while workers were evacuated from warehouses that came under attack in Adygeysk, in the Adygeya region, and in Nevinnomyssk in the Stavropol region.

In earlier events, drone strikes halted work at an Ozon logistics centre in the Samara region and another in the Orenburg region.

Financial analysts said that unlike privately owned Wildberries, which has the backing of state-owned bank VTB, Ozon's main shareholder AFK Sistema has a large debt and is unlikely to provide substantial support. Before the latest Ozon attacks, Vladimir Putin promised state help in the restoration of warehouses "at a new technological level" and asked the government to design a programme to help the sector. The EU imposed sanctions on Ozon's and Wildberries' financial units on 24 July.

Putin has geared up the Russian state to seize control of companies like Wildberries and Ozon, as well as fuel companies and transport operators, by deeming them too poorly protected from Ukrainian attacks. Special powers set out in a presidential decree will allow the state to take charge of them at a time when Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on oil refineries and e-commerce warehouses.

Putin's Decree

The state will be able to seize physical and financial assets, and assume formal ownership rights, if entities responsible for such facilities are judged to have failed to protect them and are too slow to repair them after any attack. It applies to fuel, energy, industrial, communications, transport and logistics facilities and other objects regarded as critically important for security and economic stability.

Military Strikes

The Ukrainian military struck a Russian Mig-29 fighter plane and two Russian vessels in the Black Sea, Ukraine's drone forces commander Robert Brovdi said on Monday. It is the third Russian warplane hit in two days. Brovdi said on the Telegram app that one of the vessels attacked was a tanker and the other was a bulk carrier.

Ukraine's military struck a Russian military plant at Kamensky in the Rostov region, causing a fire, the Ukrainian general staff said. The plant produces solid rocket fuel for Russian weapons.

The Perm oil refinery, Russia's seventh-largest by volume, has shut down after a Ukrainian drone attack on 21 August, two industry sources told Reuters. The primary CDU-4 unit, which accounts for almost 40% of the plant's capacity, stopped working on that day. Repair works could take between one and two weeks. Another primary refining unit, CDU-5, which accounts for 34% of the plant's capacity, has been idle since a 29 July drone attack.

Coalition of the Willing

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham urged Ukraine's allies to "dig into our own stocks" to provide it with more Patriot interceptor missiles, saying it "needs more help to protect its people right now". Burnham chaired his first meeting of the "coalition of the willing" in Kyiv as Ukraine celebrated its independence day. Burnham said the coalition was "doing everything we can all do and working with our allies outside of this coalition to dig into our own stocks and help others dig into their stocks". He called on the US Congress to "ratchet up" economic pressure on Russia as it struggles with a record budget deficit and declining oil revenues.

Prisoner Exchange

Ten Ukrainian prisoners of war who were thought to be missing in action have been released in a prisoner exchange, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. He did not mention Russia in his statement, saying only that the prisoners had been released via Belarus, one of Moscow's closest allies. Russia did not immediately say if Kyiv had returned soldiers in the exchange.

Side Story: Danish PM Hits Back at Unsolicited Beauty Tip

In a separate but noteworthy development, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen rebuffed a male cosmetic surgeon's offer to "fix" her and advised women in similar situations to embrace self-acceptance.

Frederiksen posted on Instagram that she had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, where she was subjected to air raid sirens, when she found a message proposing some help with her appearance. She included a screenshot of the exchange in which the doctor said he could "fix that little spot on your nose".

Her retort was swift and pointed: "Oh no. I'm happy with my body – I really don't need a male plastic surgeon to have an opinion about it!"

Frederiksen, who has led the EU and Nato member country since 2019 and is one of Europe's longest-serving heads of government, said being a woman in the public eye meant regular exposure to such unwanted and superficial scrutiny.

"I've lost count of how many messages I've received over the years about my appearance," the 48-year-old wrote. "Especially that I have ugly teeth and thin hair. That I have an ugly 'wart' on my nose and well-meaning advice to get some Botox."

Frederiksen's global profile has grown this year as she stood up to US president's repeated claims on Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory. She is also a staunch supporter of Ukraine against the Russian onslaught.

In a moment of striking candour, Frederiksen admitted annoyance with pushy beauty advice while offering her own guidance how to deal with it.

She said she did not volunteer opinions about other people's looks and said that "I'm perfectly fine with my body – as it is when you're a woman approaching 50."

Frederiksen said she was fine to stay in conversation with the public on a range of topics but encouraged Danes to set the bar higher with their chosen subject matter.

"If you're going to write to me (and you're more than welcome to), I hope you'll use your time to talk about something more meaningful," she said. "Not my nose."

Although the mean-spirited suggestions made her feel "indignant", she said, "today, I'm sending an extra loving thought to all of you who have to put up with the 'perfect imperfections' we all walk around with every day."

What's Next

• Ozon operations: Impact of warehouse attacks on Russian e-commerce
• Putin's decree: Implementation of state seizure powers
• Patriot supplies: Coalition efforts to provide more interceptors
• Refinery shutdowns: Further impact on Russian fuel production
• Prisoner exchanges: More releases via Belarus