Drone attacks worsen Russia's fuel shortages as regional governor reports petrol remains unavailable for sale on certain days

Fuel shortages that began building in summer 2025 have grown into a broad national problem for Russia, prompting the oil-producing country to restrict energy exports and seek imports from abroad.

In the annexed region of Crimea, among the earliest Russian-held areas to face the shortages, public gasoline sales were restricted several weeks earlier.

"The fuel supply situation remains tense and will persist for some time," Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-backed head of Crimea, warned again in a statement on Wednesday. "On certain days, fuel will not be available for sale."

Aksyonov's announcement follows Crimea's June 22 decision to halt fuel sales temporarily except to the federal government and essential services.

Much of the crisis in the area arises from a Ukrainian effort to isolate the peninsula through drone strikes. Crimea links to mainland Europe and Russia via several key land routes, all facing heavy attacks in recent weeks.

A new class of longer-range fixed-wing drones, frequently fitted with artificial intelligence to boost survival against signal jamming, has allowed Kyiv's forces to strike these bridges, supply paths, and trucks in the south for months.

A key target has been the R-280, a major supply highway running from Rostov-on-Don to Crimea via the western coastline of the Sea of Azov. Traffic on the route dropped over 70 percent, Ukraine's forces said in June.

The strikes continue. On Wednesday, drone pilots from Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces said that they had hit more than 360 oil tankers and heavy transport vehicles bound for Crimea in a single week.

"Every tanker and every unit of heavy transport on this route is a legitimate military target," the drone warfare branch said in its statement.

The fuel problem stretches beyond Crimea. Ukraine has spent the better part of the last year repeatedly bombarding Russian oil and gas infrastructure with long-range, jet-launched drones.

Russian government statistics have since said gasoline production fell by 17 percent, with about a third of local oil refining capacity damaged.

Last week, Ukrainian forces said they'd knocked out 42.74 percent of Russia's oil refining capacity, though this has yet to be corroborated publicly by outside sources.

Regardless, the toll is starting to show. At least 78 of Russia's 83 regions are suffering from gasoline or diesel shortages, with 48 of these areas introducing some form of purchase cut or limit, per an analysis by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

In Moscow, by far Russia's wealthiest city, lines of cars have been seen in recent days outside petrol stations. Social media posts in other regions show queues snaking for miles; one viral video shows a man saying he'd been waiting for 36 hours in Zabaykalsky Krai in the Russian Far East.

The Kremlin responded on Wednesday by banning diesel and jet fuel exports, saying it had begun importing petrol and sourcing products with lower environmental standards.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin acknowledged the shortages last week, but has so far sought to assure the nation that they will pass, calling them temporary matters in a meeting with officials on Wednesday.