AP News53%
Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries plunge Russia into a summer fuel crisis 44%
By Dasha Litvinova0%
7/1/2026, 4:01:51 AM
Keywords: Ukraine, Moscow, Vladimir Putin, Russia, Oil And Gas Industry, Business, Russia Ukraine War Fuel Crisis Gas, Fires, Chris Weafer, Pavel Kharitonenko, Dmitry Peskov, Viktor Shkurenko, Russia Government, International Agreements, Gary Peach, Ukraine Government, International Trade, Energy Industry, Inflation, Consumer Prices
BS Summary: This article contains 23 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Authority, Post Hoc (False Cause), and Framing Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 29.4% saturation with 178 hits. Analysis detected 1,415 faulty-reasoning hits from 605 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 46.8% and a BS Rank of 44% (12,464 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 56.90% of the article peer group.
Lines are growing at Russian gas stations -- and so is the frustration and uncertainty as several months of Ukrainian attacks have set oil refineries ablaze and choked supplies for motorists across the vast country.
Fuel rationing has been introduced in many regions, with hourslong queues of cars snaking beside roads.
Social media videos show drivers aghast at the lines or swearing at empty gas pumps and rising prices.
The fuel crisis — unprecedented for a nation that is one of the world’s biggest energy producers — has brought Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine home to ordinary Russians like few other events in the war, now in its fifth year.
It drew a rare admission from President Vladimir Putin, who acknowledged that “problems persist for both motorists and businesses. ... and there are still queues at petrol stations, and finding the right grade of petrol isn’t always easy.”
Putin insisted the shortages are “not critical” and “temporary.”
But that appeared to do little to reassure at least one motorist in Moscow, the wealthy capital typically better-insulated from economic shocks than the rest of the country.
“I think the situation is not very good,” the motorist waiting in line told The Associated Press on Monday, the day after Putin’s televised remarks.
“They say one thing on television, and in reality it’s another. ...
People are queueing everywhere,” he added, declining to identify himself out of concern for his safety.
Ukraine hits energy targets multiple times
An AP count shows over 50 reported attacks by Ukraine on oil refineries, depots, terminals and other oil infrastructure in Russia and the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula since late March.
Often, the same facility is hit more than once -- such as the refinery in the Black Sea town of Tuapse, which was struck four times in just over two weeks.
As a result, the amount of crude oil Russia processed into fuel in June was down 25% from a year ago, to 3.95 million barrels per day — the lowest level in over two decades, said Gary Peach, oil markets analyst at Energy Intelligence.
“The outages are extraordinary,” he said.
Gasoline production has fallen 17% to 850,000 barrels a day, from 1.03 million a day a year ago — far short of what’s needed for the domestic market.
Russia exports relatively little gasoline.
“Reportedly, there are good supplies of fuel around the country.
The problem is it’s in the wrong place,” Peach said.
Supplies need to be reallocated to regions experiencing shortages, and in a big country like Russia, “it’s not something that can be done overnight,” Weafer said.
“There should be enough, but it will take several weeks to get it from where it is to where it’s needed,” he says.
“It’s just a huge logistics operation to do that.”
Fixing the war-damaged refineries is complicated.
Ukraine’s attacks damaged specialized equipment that is often sourced abroad, making repairs time-consuming and expensive as workarounds or replacements are sought by evading sanctions.
“They manage to get these things up and running, not necessarily at full capacity,” Peach said.
“But the extent of the damage this time is so extensive that they won’t get back to winter levels of refining this summer.”
Repairing the Moscow Oil Refinery, which supplied 40% of the fuel to the capital and the surrounding region, is expected to take at least three months, Weafer said.
If there’s no further damage to Russia’s oil infrastructure, he estimated the shortages will last “probably throughout the summer” because demand from agriculture will likely remain high into September.
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100%flagged-word coverageVladimir Putin
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