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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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Several Russian regions, plus parts of Moscow-controlled Ukraine, are experiencing gas shortages and rationing after persistent Ukrainian attacks on the country's oil facilities, according to new reports.
Why It Matters
Kyiv has homed in on Russia's oil industry, seeking to slice at the Kremlin's ability to fund its war effort more than three and a half years into Russia's full-scale invasion and hammer home the reverberations of the conflict for ordinary Russians.
Read More on World
In August, Ukraine has targeted several major Russian oil refineries, while its attacks on an oil pumping station in Russia's Bryansk region also stopped oil flowing through the Druzhba pipeline. Crude oil deliveries via the major pipeline from Russia still have not resumed.
Russia's oil sector is under Western sanctions, but it still holds a major position in the global market.
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What To Know
Ukrainian attacks on 10 Russian oil sites have affected at least 17 percent of Russia's refining capacity, Reuters reported on Monday.
This is equivalent to 1.1 million barrels a day, according to the news agency. About 13 percent of Russia's fuel production has been taken out through Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Southern regions of Russia, the country's far east and some parts of Ukraine that are under Moscow's control experienced gasoline shortages that forced some motorists to opt for more expensive petrol, Reuters reported. Russian regions, including chunks of Siberia, and Crimea—which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014—put rationing at gas stations in place, the Journal reported.
Russian media reported shortages in the far eastern Primorsky region in early August, spreading to the main city of Vladivostok.
At the beginning of August, Ukraine targeted the Novokuibyshevsk refinery, operated by Russian energy giant Rosneft in the country's Samara region. The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S.-based think tank, described the facility as an "important supplier of gasoline" to southwestern Russia, Crimea and Russian-controlled areas of mainland Ukraine.
On the same day, Ukraine attacked Rosneft's refinery in the Ryazan region. Several days later, Kyiv's military said it had struck the Afipsky oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, which it said was responsible for more than 2 percent of Russia's entire oil-processing capacity.
On August 10, Ukraine confirmed that it had targeted the Saratov refinery. On the same day, Ukrainian media reported a Ukrainian attack on the Ukhta oil refinery about 2,000 kilometers from Ukraine's border.
Ukraine said on August 14 that it had struck an oil refinery operated by Lukoil in the Volgograd region, which "supplies the Russian army with petroleum products." The following day, Kyiv's military said it had hit one of Rosneft's largest refineries, the Syzran facility in Samara. Ukraine said it hit the refinery again on August 24.
Yury Slyusar, the acting governor of Russia's Rostov region, said on Tuesday that local authorities had extinguished a fire at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery after a Ukrainian attack on August 21.
Ukraine's recent run of strikes on Russian oil refineries "have contributed to gasoline shortages across Russia that will likely raise inflation," the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Tuesday.
"Russia struggled to keep up with domestic demand for gasoline even before recent Ukrainian strikes," the U.S.-based think tank added. This will "likely result in increased consumer costs and increased business expenses across industries."
Wholesale petrol prices in Russia hit record highs in mid-August, the Financial Times reported*.*
Reuters reported on Tuesday that Russia had increased its planned exports by 200,000 barrels per day for August, citing three people familiar with the matter.
What People Are Saying
The Center for Strategic and International Studies wrote earlier this month: "Russia is highly sensitive to gasoline prices; preventing sharp spikes is important for Putin's popularity and preventing domestic discontent."
Sergey Vakulenko, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told the Associated Press: "The Ukrainians are attacking an arc of refineries, starting from Ryazan, which is south of Moscow, all the way to Volgograd."
What Happens Next
Ukraine will likely continue targeting Russian oil facilities as U.S.-brokered peace talks grind on.
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