Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and export infrastructure have disrupted Russia’s refining and export operations, triggered gasoline shortages in some regions, and served as a response to Moscow’s strikes on Ukraine’s gas and energy facilities.
Reuters reported this, as cited by Ukrinform.
According to Reuters calculations, Ukrainian attacks on 10 plants have disrupted at least 17% of Russia’s refinery capacity, or 1.1 million barrels per day. The refinery strikes came during peak seasonal demand for gasoline from tourists and farmers. Even before the attacks, Russia tightened its gasoline export ban in July to cope with soaring domestic demand.
Some areas in temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, southern Russia, and the Far East experienced shortages of gasoline, forcing motorists to switch to more expensive fuel as regular A-95 became scarce.
Over the past month, Ukraine has attacked the Lukoil refinery in Volgograd, the Rosneft refinery in Ryazan, and several others in Rostov, Samara, Saratov, and Krasnodar regions. A fire at Russia’s Novoshakhtinsk refinery was still burning on Monday after a Ukrainian drone strike. Ukrainian drones have also attacked the Druzhba pipeline, the Novatek export terminal in Ust-Luga, and a fuel-processing complex on the Baltic Sea.
According to Sergey Vakulenko, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, who previously worked at Russian oil major Gazprom Neft, the damaged refineries have only lost part of their capacity, but even that could cause problems with domestic fuel supplies.
Russia relies heavily on oil and gas exports, which provide about a quarter of its budget revenues — funding a 25% increase in defense spending in 2025.
“Western sanctions have forced Moscow to sell oil at discounts and stop gas sales in most of Europe. This has not deterred Moscow from producing record numbers of artillery and weapons, according to U.S. military generals. The war in Ukraine has become a battle of attrition with both Russia and Ukraine using drones and missiles to strike far behind the front lines to damage each other’s economies. So far, Russia’s economy has coped with the sanctions but growth has slowed raising concern in the Kremlin,” Reuters noted.
As reported earlier, sales of AI-92 gasoline to the public were suspended in Russia’s Kuril Islands, part of Sakhalin region.
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Source: Ukraine disables at least 17% of Russia’s oil refinery capacity – Reuters
