Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin has been remarkably reserved and selective in his targeting, considering the scale and capability of the massively armed nation to obliterate Ukraine metropolitan areas.

Russia absorbed all the Ukraine attacks on Wildberries warehouses for all the reasons CTH previously noted.  Ukraine was convinced by western intelligence analysis that destroying the roughly 200 Wildberries distribution centers would cripple the Russian consumer economy.  However, increased strikes did not yield the desired results. Duh.

Ukraine then added Ozon to the target list, another online retailer for everyday items similar to Amazon (even with similar name).

Ukraine began targeting Ozon warehouse and distribution centers shortly before they began more parcel and car bomb attacks against strategic Russian military officers.

It’s almost like Western intelligence do not understand how resilient Russian consumers are.  Russia is considerably analog in an almost exclusively western digital world.  Perhaps that’s the disconnect, but I would think with the cultural connections between both nations, Ukraine would know better.

Then again, is it really Ukraine strategizing the war?

Regardless, Vladimir Putin has now taken the restrictions away from dual use infrastructure in/around Kyiv, and for the past two days Russia has continued to launch relentless volleys of missiles and drones at Kyiv warehouses.  Overall, during the two days of Russian attacks, 17 warehouse facilities, 16 private houses, three apartment buildings and 16 vehicles were damaged in Kyiv region. {source} It’s the retaliatory version of FAFO.

Western Ukraine (Kyiv region) is very ‘western’, very western.  Eastern Ukraine, not so much.  Suddenly the nightclubs, dance clubs and entertainment districts in/around Kyiv (Kiev) are empty.

What is now beginning to be shared on background alternative media is the scope of exodus from Ukraine (picture above left).  Thousands of Ukrainians are now fleeing every day.

KYIVPOST -Russian forces struck Nova Poshta warehouse facilities in the Kyiv region early Friday, Aug. 28, then hit the same site twice more as firefighters were battling the resulting blaze, local authorities said.

The initial strike targeted warehouses in the Bilohorodka community, damaging a nearby production facility in Sviatopetrivske, according to Anton Ovsiienko, head of the Bilohorodka village council.

Nearly an hour later, while emergency crews were still fighting the fire, Russian forces launched two more strikes at the same location. Firefighters and other specialists managed to move to a safer area before the additional impacts, Ovsiienko said.

The Nova Poshta strike was part of a broader overnight Russian assault that repeatedly targeted logistics infrastructure across the Kyiv region.

Overnight on Aug. 26-27, Russian drones and ballistic missiles caused fires and damage at several warehouse facilities across the region, the Kyiv region Governor Tymur Tkachenko said.

A warehouse in Boryspil district caught fire, while facilities in Fastiv district were damaged. Private homes were also damaged in Brovary and Vyshhorod districts. There were no initial reports of civilian casualties.

Local residents published footage showing fires and reported that warehouses belonging to Ukrainian online retailer Rozetka and retail group Fozzy Group were among those hit. Those reports have not been independently confirmed. (read more)

This conflict fascinates me; in part because of the western media and EU/NATO propaganda behind it, and in part because the vast majority of westerners do not understand the cultural dynamic at play in this conflict.

There are no old men in Russia.  Go set up a cctv camera on a crowded street and look for men over 70 years-of-age.  You won’t find them.  Russia never had a baby boom after World War II.  Men were slaughtered by the millions.  Russia has a lot of old women, but old men – they are as scarce as a pregnant Chinese woman.

Gen-X, Millennials and now Gen-Z males are required to spend two-years in military service.  Almost all Russian men know how to war, and the Ukraine conflict is creating another generation of hardened war fighters.  I do not believe the “reported” Russian casualty counts, because if they were accurate, I would have run into families of the lost servicemembers during my visits; I have not.  A few dozen wounded (usually leg wounds) have been visible in two very cautiously organized visits to veterans’ hospitals.

If a million Russian soldiers were dead (western reporting), there would be signs of that scale. There are not.  In a nation of 143 million people, with well below half being males, a million dead out of 50 to 60 million would be very visible.  There are no signs of that.  The median age is 40.

As the ‘war’ enters its fifth year, Russia is assimilating the Donbas region in the East and fortifying territorial gains.  Ukraine is fighting Russia using western technology as a strategic advantage, but the strikes and attacks into mainland Russia are not consequential.  Russia is nowhere close to the level of severe economic hardship that western media and pundits proclaim. It’s just not.

Culturally, Russians are not ‘resilient’ in the western sense of the word.  Russians are pragmatic, deliberate and hard as a matter of cultural pride.  Jungle gyms, rope ladders, metal slides with sharp edges, rope swings and all that physical playground stuff you grew up with that western insurance companies eventually deemed too dangerous, are still in use and being built.  7-year-olds fall on concrete with reckless abandon, scrape their skin, stand up and keep playing.

Moms and dads don’t flinch.

Russia is analog in a digital world.  Stuff gets fixed quickly. No-one is sitting around waiting on an $800 microchip for repair.  You want water in a bathroom; you turn a knob – not wave your hands.  When the internet is turned off, no one twitches.  Phone calls do the job just fine and pens with paper transfer instructions to whoever needs the task.  They still sell maps.

Russians walk a lot, go shopping, in actual stores and stuff.  This is why bombing Russian online warehouses is far less effective than if you took down Amazon in the USA. If you forget something, or if you just don’t want to go out, you text the company or use an app and a guy on a moped shows up and hands it to you in a plastic bag; no delivery fee. It’s weird.

Remember, metropolitan Russia is set up with govt planned precincts. Each few buildings have a generally useful grocery store, a bakery, a coffee shop, a pharmacy, a utility store, etc. all within immediate walking distance.  They set it up that way a long time ago, and the stores are different, but the planning never changed.

• 75.4% of the Russian population is urban (108,135,895 people in 2026) {source}

I say all of this to question myself about who in their right mind thought destroying regional Russian warehouses would have some great impact.  It’s akin to stomping individual ants.

This approach is not going to ‘destroy’ the Russian economy. However, in the westernized and centralized western consumer structure built on economies of scale and cost-efficient distribution, vis-a-vis Kyiv or Brussels etc., taking out regional hubs and distribution centers might just create some chaos.

When the power goes out or the internet stops working in our culturally convenienced western world, we start to get twitchy really quick.  In Russia they just grab a lantern, read a book – the actual paper kind – eat a sandwich or go for a walk.  Adults can also sit on benches and watch dogs for hours, without having a sense they need to be doing something.

I think part of the reason the western news doesn’t make sense is because we don’t understand Russians.

Think about conscripting Gen-Z and younger Millennials in Europe or America.  Think about the young people you know around you.  If they were pushed to a war-fighting disposition, how would they react without all their gadgets?

Russia is an entirely different kettle-o-fish.

It’s not better, it’s just different.  However, for this part of the hardcore existential stuff, they’re patriotic and hard.

We’ll keep watching.

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