Ukrainian attacks have driven up gasoline prices in Russia. Putin pretends nothing is happening
The authorities of Zabaikalsky Krai in eastern Russia have appealed for help from the Kremlin due to huge shortages of diesel and gasoline in the eastern Siberian region.
In a letter addressed to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and the Russian Ministry of Energy, the governor of Zabaikalsky Krai, Alexander Osipov, states that the region is struggling with a “serious shortage of gasoline.”
Zabaikalsky Krai is a vast territory with an area comparable to Sweden, bordering Mongolia and China. On Friday, November 7, the Chita.ru news platform described Osipov's complaint, which states that the administrative unit “has completely exhausted stocks of 92-octane gasoline intended for retail sale.” Only vehicles belonging to government agencies, such as emergency services and police, are currently eligible to use government fuel reserves.
Most regions of Russia are currently struggling with this situation, even those with refineries
– you can read in the letter.
Drones? What drones?
Independent Russian media have increasingly reported fuel shortages and even complete shortages at gas stations since August, when Ukraine began a campaign of bombings of Russian refineries and oil transport infrastructure.
The independent Russian news agency SOTA reported on Friday, November 7, public comments by Denis Osipov (no relation to Governor Osipov), head of the Department of Consumer Market Activity in the Ministry of Economy, who blamed the shortages he blamed consumer panic and an allegedly irresponsible media.
— The situation is stabilizing. All decisions are made at the national level, but we also work at the regional level, says Osipov.
Blocked nozzles at a gas station in Moscow. Russia, September 26, 2025MAXIM SHIPENKOV / PAP
However, he does not mention Ukrainian drones, which have been striking Russian energy infrastructure almost every day since the end of July.
In an October 27 statement, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Cyvilov, reported by the state news agency TASS, admits that the Russian retail fuel market is struggling with point shortages and rising pricesbut also does not mention drone attacks from Ukraine. He cites seasonal demand and scheduled maintenance at refineries as the reason.
Local Russian media largely follow the official line that gasoline shortages in Russia are temporary and due to the market situation. They avoid linking queues at gas stations with Ukrainian drone attacks. However, complaints about the sharp increase in fuel prices are pouring in.
The Pepeł Belgorod news portal reported that the prices of diesel and gasoline have increased by approximately 15 percent since the end of October.
“Unfortunately, this is not a joke”
Andrei Nikułin, a political scientist from Arctic Murmansk, in a blog entry published on Monday, noted that the price of 92-octane gasoline is currently at 86 rubles (approx. PLN 4) per liter, i.e. about 40 percent. more than in summer:
86 rubles per liter sounds like we were transporting gasoline on polar bears across the tundra. Unfortunately, this is not a joke, but the reality of 2025.
According to the independent Astra agency, the damage caused by Ukrainian drone attacks, sometimes reaching over PLN 2,000. km deep into Russian territory, resulted in the detention of almost 40 percent. all crude oil processing capacities of the Russian Federation.
If these data are confirmed, the numbers will be twice as high from most estimates of the Western energy industry regarding the decline in crude oil processing capacity in Russia.
Russia on the verge of paralysis
According to Kyiv Post data, from the end of July to Friday, November 7, Kyiv carried out 151 independently confirmed attacks for the energy industry.
According to this data, Ukrainian drones remained stable a rate of two or three attacks on targets every 24 hours: :
- power grid substation near the city of Vladimir,
- power plant near the city of Oryol,
- two stations near Jarosław,
- thermal power plant near Kostroma,
- oil refineries in Volgograd and Bashkortostan.
According to Kyiv Post, on November 6 and 7, combat drones piloted by Ukrainian special forces struck fuel storage tanks on the occupied Crimean peninsula.
According to Russian press reports and groups monitoring the transport industry, at the beginning of November the only regions in Russia that were not significantly affected by fuel supply restrictions were the capital Moscow and surrounding districts, the St. Petersburg metropolitan area and some districts in the north of the country.
Kilometer-long queues of cars in front of gas stations, even in the oil-rich Tyumen Oblast in central Siberia, have sparked unusual media criticism of the authorities for mismanaging the country's fuel distribution network.
An in-depth analysis of the state news platform Lenta published in October cited “exchange rates”, “declining production capacity”, “logistical difficulties” and “artificial inflating” the issue as the causes of the “disruptions”.
In a population of over 2.6 thousand words of an article approved by the Kremlin drones, explosions or Ukraine were never mentioned.
