Vladimir Putin has publicly acknowledged for the first time that Ukraine’s sustained drone strikes on Russian energy facilities have caused fuel shortages across his country. The admission came on Sunday and marked a significant moment in a conflict in which the Russian president has long insisted that attacks on Russian soil were having little practical effect.
Speaking in a state television interview and separately at a meeting with government ministers, Putin described what he called a temporary deficit of fuel in several regions. He said Russia would respond by importing more fuel and accelerating repairs to damaged oil facilities. He referred to Ukraine’s strikes as terrorist attacks on Russian infrastructure. He insisted the problems were manageable. But the fact that he acknowledged them at all was notable. “Yes, we see and realise our problems,” he said. “We will certainly handle all the challenges we are facing today, including terrorist attacks on our territory and our infrastructure.”
The scene on the ground tells a different story. Long queues of vehicles have been forming at petrol stations across Russia since mid-June. In St. Petersburg, fuel stations have been capping individual purchases at between 20 and 100 litres per vehicle. In Crimea, the situation is more severe. Following weeks of Ukrainian strikes on roads, bridges and supply routes to the peninsula, the regional governor announced a complete halt on petrol sales to the public. By the end of last week, at least 55 of Russia’s 83 administrative regions were reporting some form of restriction on the sale of petrol or diesel, whether imposed by government order or by private fuel companies themselves.
The cause of all this is a sustained and widening Ukrainian drone campaign targeting the refineries and distribution networks that supply Russia with the fuel it needs to run its economy and sustain its military operations. Ukraine has struck more than two dozen Russian refineries since March. Those strikes have included eight of Russia’s ten largest refining facilities. The Kapotnya refinery, the biggest supplier of fuel to the Moscow region, was hit twice in June alone. Officials told Reuters it will be offline until at least the end of 2026. Ukrainian drones have also hit oil export terminals on both the Baltic and Black seas, limiting Russia’s ability to sell hydrocarbons abroad and bring in the revenue that funds the war.
The International Energy Agency said in a report last week that the level of disruption was unprecedented in the history of the conflict. One energy analyst at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center wrote that the resilience of the Russian oil industry was being stretched dangerously thin. Analysts estimate that more than 20 per cent of Russia’s total refining capacity has now been knocked offline.
The most striking single attack came on the 18th of June, when Ukrainian drones struck the Gazprom refinery in Moscow itself, causing a large explosion and sending black smoke over the Russian capital. The attack was significant not just for its scale but for its location. Putin has spent years telling his population that Crimea is secure and that the war would not reach their doorsteps. A burning refinery in Moscow made that assurance much harder to sustain.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Sunday that his forces had struck two more refineries. One was in the Krasnodar region, approximately 300 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. The other was reportedly in the Yaroslavl region, around 700 kilometres from Ukraine. Zelenskyy described the strikes as what he called long-range sanctions. “Each strike means a reduction in the resources that fuel the Russian war machine, and another step toward peace,” he wrote.
Russia struck back overnight. The Ukrainian air force reported that 142 long-range drones and eight missiles were launched at Ukraine. Of those, 125 drones and seven missiles were intercepted.
As CNBC reported, Putin also used his appearance at the United Russia party congress on Sunday to address Ukraine’s reported offer to limit attacks to regions that Russia annexed but never fully captured. He rejected the proposal. He argued it would allow Ukraine to redeploy forces from other areas to concentrate on the four southeastern regions. He dismissed any suggestion that the deep strikes were affecting conditions at the front.
Analysts following the conflict have reached different conclusions. Several have suggested the fuel crisis represents the most significant pressure Ukraine has placed on Russia’s war economy since the full-scale invasion began more than four years ago. Small and medium-sized businesses in Russia are facing a rising rate of bankruptcies. Sweden’s intelligence services have alleged that Russia is manipulating its economic data and that the true inflation rate may be considerably higher than official figures suggest.
Whether the fuel shortages translate into meaningful strategic pressure on Moscow depends on how long the Ukrainian drone campaign can be sustained and how effectively Russia can repair and protect its remaining refining capacity.
