Nadezhda Driamina/European Correspondent
Ukrainian drone campaign on Russia’s energy infrastructure has caused fuel shortages so severe that the Kremlin has admitted it. Queues in Moscow are forming for the first time, and Russia has brought back banned low-grade fuel to plug the gap, while detaining residents who complained publicly.
Petrol was available at fewer than three in 10 petrol stations across Russia on Wednesday, the latest sign that a second wave of fuel shortages is hitting harder than the first, with queues forming at pumps in Moscow for the first time.
The monitoring app Gdebenz put nationwide petrol availability at 28% of filling stations on Wednesday, down from 41% a week earlier.
Fuel restrictions — including limits on the volume sold per customer, QR-based rationing and odd-even number plate schemes — were in place in nearly all regions as of last Saturday, according to Benzinmap, which tracks restrictions and prices nationwide.
Gazprom Neft filling stations in Moscow set a temporary cap of 40 litres per fill-up. Tatneft capped petrol at 50 litres and diesel at 60. By Wednesday, the Yandex Fuel service showed AI-92 petrol available at just one in 10 stations in the capital.
The crisis is the direct result of Kyiv’s sustained drone campaign against Russian oil infrastructure in a bid to weaken its war machine amid Moscow’s ongoing all-out invasion of Ukraine. By early July every major refinery in Russia had been struck at least once.
In the first two weeks of August alone, nearly a dozen more facilities were hit, including Yaroslavnefteorgsintez in Yaroslavl, two refineries in Bashkortostan and export infrastructure at the port of Ust-Luga.
Russian Forbes calculated that damaged refineries now account for 54% of total national refining capacity. Daily petrol output fell to between 75,000 and 80,000 tonnes in July, against summer demand of 115,000 to 120,000 tonnes — a daily deficit of roughly 35%.
Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the shortage at the end of July, describing it as “non-critical”. He repeated the phrase on Wednesday.
“There are no critical consequences from such attacks, there have been none and there cannot be any. But they do, of course, cause us damage; that is obvious, we understand it, we see it and we know it,” Putin said.
Disagreements over imports further the crisis
Russia’s position as one of the world’s largest oil exporters has not shielded it from the shortages.
In July Moscow banned petrol and diesel exports to protect domestic supply. It has been importing fuel by rail from Belarus — shipments that surged 25-fold year on year between January and July — Kazakhstan and for the first time Morocco, when a Lukoil-supplied cargo of approximately 30,000 tonnes of AI-92 was loaded at Tangier and shipped to Murmansk.
Much of the imported fuel has not reached consumers: according to Russian industry sources cited by the portal InfoTEK, large volumes of Indian and Moroccan petrol are stuck at Murmansk because suppliers want between 110,000 and 130,000 roubles per tonne, while the state regulator is demanding a price below 78,000 roubles**.**
A further supply gap is expected in September when Belarus’s Novopolotsk refinery undergoes scheduled maintenance.
Belarus supplied a record 212,000 tonnes of petrol and 162,000 tonnes of diesel to Russia in July. It now processes Russian crude on a tolling basis and is Moscow’s most important external fuel source. Both of Belarus’ refineries — Novopolotsk and Mozyr — have a combined export capacity of roughly 2 million tonnes per year, a fraction of what Russia needs.
Retail petrol prices rose 7.4% in the first half of 2026 to an average of 70 roubles per litre, and diesel by more than 12%, according to official data. Residents in some regions say prices have exceeded 100 roubles per litre (€1.02).
The Kremlin has ordered the Federal Antimonopoly Service to tighten price controls; the agency said on Wednesday it had opened 41 cases against oil companies for violations.
The crisis has forced Russia to reintroduce fuel grades that it banned in the 2010s. On 5 August the government authorised the production, import and sale of Euro-2, Euro-3 and Euro-4 petrol for almost a year.
High-sulphur fuel below the Euro-5 standard can degrade modern engines and produces significantly higher levels of air pollutants. Trading in the lower grades started on the St Petersburg exchange on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, authorities are prosecuting people who have complained publicly about the shortages.
In Volgograd, authorities detained five residents after they recorded a video message to the head of the Russian Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin, complaining that officials filled up without restrictions while ordinary drivers faced rationing.
One received five days’ administrative arrest, while another was fined. A Perm resident who staged a solo picket over petrol access was also fined.
