Image Credentials: Image Title: Russian Fuel Crisis Widens After Ukrainian Attacks, Say Sources Source: (Sora.ChatGpt) Date: September 2025. Attribution: Created using AI-generated imagery (Sora.ChatGpt), this does not depict a real-world scene.
By Emma Cole | Staff Writer with Agencies
Russia is facing widening shortages of petrol across several regions as Ukrainian drone strikes on energy infrastructure disrupt refinery output, according to traders and retail operators. The combination of refining cuts and soaring borrowing costs is hitting privately-owned filling stations particularly hard, raising fears of longer-term disruptions in the domestic fuel market.
Drone Attacks Pressure Refineries
Ukraine has intensified its campaign of drone attacks on Russian refineries and export terminals in recent weeks, seeking to squeeze Moscow’s export revenues, stir domestic unrest, and pressure the Kremlin into peace negotiations. The strikes have reduced refining runs by nearly 20 percent on certain days, while exports from key Black Sea and Baltic ports have also been curtailed.
The result, traders say, is that Russia is nearing the point of having to reduce overall oil production. Although the country maintains a large surplus of diesel fuel, its petrol output is closely tied to domestic demand, leaving no cushion for disruptions.
Shortages Emerging Across Regions
While long queues at petrol stations have not yet appeared, several popular fuel grades, including Ai-92 and Ai-95, have become scarce. The first shortages were reported in August in Russia’s Far East and Crimea, but similar problems have since surfaced in the Volga region, as well as in southern and central parts of the country.
In Nizhni Novgorod, regional governor Gleb Nikitin acknowledged on his Telegram channel that “temporary” disruptions had affected supplies across the wider region. “Everything should return to normal in the coming days,” he said, without elaborating.
But industry sources told Reuters the shortages are especially acute for independent filling stations, which lack the vertical integration of major oil firms and rely on buying fuel from wholesale markets. With interest rates at 17 percent, these operators struggle to build stockpiles and are forced to shut down when supplies dry up.
“The manager decided to temporarily close the petrol station because there was no petrol,” said an employee at a filling station in Belgorod, a region bordering Ukraine. “The station in the neighbouring village also closed, and others simply ran out of petrol.”
Economic Pressures Mount
The fuel disruptions come as Russia’s economy shows signs of strain after nearly three years of war and Western sanctions. Although Moscow initially weathered the sanctions storm, industries such as coal are now facing rising bankruptcies and closures. Export revenues are slipping, adding pressure to state finances that are already stretched by military spending.
Analysts warn that if Ukrainian attacks continue at the current pace, refinery output could fall further, deepening shortages of petrol and threatening to push up inflation. While authorities insist the disruptions are temporary, the reliance of ordinary Russians on private filling stations makes the issue politically sensitive, especially in regions far from Moscow.
For now, officials remain confident supplies will stabilize, but sources in the fuel market caution that without a significant reduction in Ukrainian strikes or government intervention to support independent retailers, the shortages may become a recurring feature of daily life in Russia.
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