They pried the gates open with their hands. They jumped from a freight door. Workers describe the chaos inside two burning warehouses run by Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer.

Wildberries warehouses in Moscow and Tambov oblasts caught fire after Ukrainian drone strikes, and the evacuation of employees was marred by violations, according to eyewitness accounts cited by Post- magazine and the independent investigative outlet iStories.

In some sections, managers kept workers inside the burning buildings; employees had to open automatic gates by hand, evacuate chaotically through narrow doorways, and flee the warehouse grounds through a forest.

Wildberries’ press service denies the allegations.

Seven workers were killed and 25 injured in the attack on the Kotovsk warehouse; in Elektrostal, one person was killed and 61 were injured. ...