Russia’s fuel crisis has reached critical levels, with petrol available at fewer than three in 10 filling stations nationwide, prompting queues in Moscow for the first time and forcing the Kremlin to reintroduce banned low-grade fuel grades to plug the gap. The shortage is the direct result of Ukraine’s sustained drone campaign against Russian oil infrastructure, which has damaged facilities accounting for 54% of total national refining capacity, according to calculations by Russian Forbes.
Monitoring app Gdebenz reported that nationwide petrol availability stood at just 28% of filling stations by late August, down from 41% a week earlier. In Moscow, AI-92 petrol was available at only one in 10 stations, according to the Yandex Fuel service. The crisis has forced rationing measures across nearly all Russian regions, including volume limits per customer, QR-code-based rationing systems, and odd-even number plate schemes, according to Benzinmap, which tracks restrictions and prices nationwide.
Queues and Rationing Hit Moscow
Gazprom Neft filling stations in Moscow imposed a temporary cap of 40 litres per fill-up. Tatneft capped petrol at 50 litres and diesel at 60. The restrictions have led to visible queues at pumps in the capital for the first time, a striking image in a country that is one of the world’s largest oil exporters. Retail petrol prices rose 7.4% in the first half of 2026 to an average of 70 roubles per litre, while diesel increased by more than 12%, according to official data. Residents in some regions report prices exceeding 100 roubles per litre.
The Kremlin has ordered the Federal Antimonopoly Service to tighten price controls, and the agency opened 41 cases against oil companies for violations by mid-August. Searches for petrol cans on Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, quadrupled in a single week to top 106,000, the Ukrainian Pravda reported, reflecting growing public anxiety about supply.
Drone Strikes Cripple Refining Network
By early July, every major refinery in Russia had been struck at least once by Ukrainian drones. In the first two weeks of August alone, nearly a dozen more facilities were hit, including Yaroslavnefteorgsintez in Yaroslavl, two refineries in Bashkortostan, and export infrastructure at the port of Ust-Luga. Russia’s deep-strike campaign by Ukraine, which hit all major Lukoil refineries in recent weeks, has compounded the damage.
Daily petrol output fell to between 75,000 and 80,000 tonnes in July, against summer demand of 115,000 to 120,000 tonnes, creating a daily deficit of roughly 35%. Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the shortage at the end of July, describing it as “non-critical.” He repeated the characterization in late August: “There are no critical consequences from such attacks, there have been none and there cannot be any. But they do, of course, cause us damage; that is obvious, we understand it, we see it and we know it.”
Banned Fuel Grades Return
In a sign of the severity of the crisis, Russia has reintroduced fuel grades that it banned in the 2010s. On 5 August, the government authorized the production, import, and sale of Euro-2, Euro-3, and Euro-4 petrol for almost a year. High-sulphur fuel below the Euro-5 standard can degrade modern engines and produces significantly higher levels of air pollutants. Trading in the lower grades started on the St Petersburg exchange, according to Euronews.
Russia banned petrol and diesel exports in July to protect domestic supply, and has turned to imports by rail from Belarus, Kazakhstan, and for the first time Morocco, when a Lukoil-supplied cargo of approximately 30,000 tonnes of AI-92 was loaded at Tangier and shipped to Murmansk. Belarus supplied a record 212,000 tonnes of petrol and 162,000 tonnes of diesel to Russia in July, processing Russian crude on a tolling basis. But Belarus’s combined refinery export capacity of roughly 2 million tonnes per year represents only a fraction of what Russia needs.
Much of the imported fuel has not reached consumers. According to Russian industry sources cited by the portal InfoTEK, large volumes of Indian and Moroccan petrol are stuck at Murmansk because suppliers want between 110,000 and 130,000 roubles per tonne, while the state regulator is demanding a price below 78,000 roubles. A further supply gap is expected in September when Belarus’s Novopolotsk refinery undergoes scheduled maintenance.
Authorities Detain Citizens Who Complain
The Kremlin’s response has included prosecuting citizens who publicly complain about the shortages. In Volgograd, authorities detained five residents after they recorded a video message to the head of the Russian Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, complaining that officials filled up without restrictions while ordinary drivers faced rationing. One received five days’ administrative arrest, while another was fined.
The fuel crisis is compounding broader economic pressures already straining Russian households. A separate central bank-driven bank run has seen citizens withdraw billions from savings accounts, driven by fears the government may seize private deposits to fund the war. The combination of empty petrol stations, rationing, rising prices, and financial insecurity is creating a rare convergence of consumer hardship in a country that has so far absorbed the economic costs of war through higher prices and reduced consumption rather than systemic breakdown.
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