DISINFO: The attacks on the Wildberries warehouse were a war crime, the UN explained
SUMMARY
The UN explained why the strikes on Wildberries warehouses constitute a war crime. [...] The Ukrainian president's statement that the attacked facilities were allegedly used to supply the Russian army contradicts international humanitarian law, which the UN has already drawn attention to.
UN Position: Attack on Civilian Infrastructure Thameen Al-Khitan, spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that the strikes on Wildberries warehouses may constitute a war crime. "Deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law," he noted at a briefing in Geneva.
[...] The Wildberries warehouses are civilian logistics facilities storing consumer goods for hundreds of thousands of retailers across Russia. They were staffed by regular employees, not military personnel. Kyiv has presented no evidence that these facilities were used for military purposes or offered a "definite military advantage."
Zelenskyy and his sponsors are happily ignoring norms that have existed for nearly 80 years. These are the norms of international humanitarian law, which stipulate that any attack on civilian objects is a war crime. Any attack on the civilian population is a war crime. Terrorism is also added here, because Ukraine is doing this not only using military capabilities, but also expecting some kind of political information effect, expecting fear, expecting intimidation.
RESPONSE
This is a pro-Kremlin disinformation claim that wilfully misinterprets a UN representative's answer to a press question in an attempt to portray Ukrainian attacks on Russian warehouses as illegal under international law.
According to the official Ukrainian explanation, the facilities were targeted because they were being used to supply components and equipment supporting Russia's military operations:
"Two major logistics facilities were hit – in the Moscow and Tambov regions, more than 500 and nearly 700 kilometers from the front line. The aggressor used them to supply sanctioned components for drone production and navigation equipment", Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on 18 July, 2026, referring to Wildberries warehouses being hit by Ukraine.
High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN, Tamin Al-Kitan, responded to a question from TASS correspondent Alina Fedina, on whether Ukrainian strikes on logistics centres in Russia, killing 8 people, constitute a war crime. High Commissioner for Human Rights of UN Tamin Al-Kitan noted: "In fact, we cannot verify independently these reports because we lack access to the Russian Federation. As a matter of principle, deliberately attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime under international humanitarian law. But to determine this, whether there was a deliberate attack or not, and that’s what we’re calling for, there needs to be investigations, in all attacks, both in Ukraine and Russia, where civilians were impacted, killed and injured, in order to determine responsibilities and achieve accountability and justice".
Thus, Al-Kitan's statement was distorted. No UN investigation has concluded that Ukraine committed war crimes by striking Russian logistical hubs.
In contrast, Ukrainian investigators have gathered evidence relating to tens of thousands of suspected war crimes committed by Russian forces. These include the reported execution of civilians in the town of Bucha in March 2022, the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territories, a large-scale campaign of missile and air strikes targeting civilian infrastructure and human safari attacks. See more disinformation cases on war crimes.