Wildberries says Ukraine’s drone strikes are force majeure. Does that actually get the marketplace off the hook in Russia?

On July 18, Ukrainian forces began striking the logistics warehouses of Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace.

By July 29, drones had hit 11 of the marketplace’s warehouses.

Much of the stock burned, and sellers suffered losses — some of them losing millions of rubles.

The marketplace has already announced relief measures for sellers, but it began paying out only several days after the first strikes, and the payouts came to far less than the losses.

Meduza asked a lawyer whether sellers should insure their stock, and looked at what recourse they have — before a strike, and after their inventory has gone up in flames.