Late on Sunday, on Russian state television, Vladimir Putin said something Russians had been living with for weeks. There is a fuel shortage, and Ukrainian drones are part of the reason.
“Of course, they create problems, that’s obvious,” the Russian president said, as reported by The Guardian. “Right now we’re observing a certain shortage, but it’s not critical.” It was the first time he had acknowledged that Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure were affecting supplies at home.
Putin said Moscow would try to ease the squeeze by importing more fuel, protecting refineries better and repairing damaged sites as fast as possible.
Queues not seen since 2000
Repeated strikes have set refineries ablaze, and multiple regions have introduced petrol rationing, a step without precedent. Open-source data analysed by the Moscow Times showed rationing in at least 56 Russian regions, Moscow among them, as of Thursday. Analysts say Ukrainian attacks have cut Russia’s refining capacity by roughly a quarter and opened a shortfall of an estimated 15% in supply.
The worst-hit place is Crimea, annexed by Russia, where authorities declared a state of emergency last week after strikes disrupted logistics routes and oil infrastructure. One Muscovite told the Guardian he had waited more than two hours to fill his tank and had to rearrange his working day. Hours-long queues at filling stations have not been seen in Russia since Putin came to power in 2000.
Online, motorists posted videos of their search for fuel, and a wave of jokes followed. One widely shared meme showed Dima Bilan, the 2008 Eurovision winner, singing “Where can I find you? Which city should I fly to? Without you I can’t live”, with petrol as the object of his longing.
A race between drones and repair crews
Zelenskyy confirmed on Sunday that Ukrainian drones had hit refineries in Krasnodar Krai and Yaroslavl oblast. Earlier in June he said he had authorised a 40-day operation against Russian infrastructure to “influence the aggressor state” and press Moscow to end the war. Kyiv says the campaign is meant to weaken Russia’s war effort and bring the consequences of the conflict home to ordinary Russians.
How long the shortage lasts depends on whether Ukraine can keep it up, said Sergey Vakulenko, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre. “If the attacks stop tomorrow, then probably in two months there will be no particularly noticeable consequences,” he said. “The amount of gasoline available in Russia at the moment is determined by a race between Ukrainian drones and Russian repair teams.”
No change of course
There is little sign that the shortages, or growing frustration among ordinary Russians and the elite, have shifted the Kremlin’s resolve. Putin said Russian forces were “achieving the main task at hand – the final liberation of Donbas and Novorossiya.” The Kremlin uses the second term for the southern Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which hints at ambitions beyond Donbas. He added that Russia plans a “buffer zone” in Sumy oblast.
Putin also claimed Ukraine had proposed a mutual halt to long-range strikes and that he rejected it. Russian counterstrikes are “much stronger” and “more destructive”, he said, and “saving the Kyiv regime is not part of our plans.”
On the ground, Russian forces are advancing more slowly than last year but are close to taking Kostiantynivka, a largely ruined city. Casualties remain high, and the Guardian reported signs of worsening morale among frontline troops. Over the weekend, authorities arrested a former soldier whose video threatened an armed mutiny unless Putin met him to discuss abuse of soldiers by commanders. It had been viewed more than 11 million times.
