Ukrainian Drone Strikes on Refineries Trigger Gasoline Shortages Across Russia

Gasoline shortages have spread to more than 20 Russian regions following a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries, according to Russia’s Independent Fuel Union (NTS).

What began as a localized disruption has now engulfed much of European Russia, said Dmitry Tortev, a member of the expert council of the State Duma Committee on Protection of Competition.

Initially, shortages were reported in late August in eastern territories, including Transbaikalia, Primorye, the Kuril Islands, and occupied Crimea.

By early September, they had extended to Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Saratov, Samara, Ulyanovsk, Penza, Rostov, and Astrakhan regions, as well as Kalmykia and Tatarstan.

Fuel supply problems were also reported in the Amur, Magadan, and Sakhalin regions, Khabarovsk Krai, Yakutia, the Jewish Autonomous Region, and Chukotka.

Fuel Union’s President Pavel Bazhenov said shortages of AI-92 and AI-95 gasoline have already forced some independent filling stations to shut down. “Some operate from one tanker delivery to the next, while others have stopped completely,” he said.

Ekaterina Savkina of the Russian Fuel Union (RTS) confirmed that many stations had not received refinery shipments for weeks, warning that this poses risks to retail fuel market stability in the affected regions.