2025–2026 Russian fuel crisis

There have been several gasoline crises in Russia since the 2010s started, most recently in 2023. As part of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Ukrainian drones had occasionally targeted Russian refineries since 2024, causing expense and inconvenience.^[4]

According to a 25 June 2026 analysis by CNN, Ukraine had struck Russian oil facilities over 300 times since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.^[5] Only 3 strikes were performed in the first year of the war (February 2022 to February 2023), with an additional 13 in the second year.^[5] Ukraine's deep strike campaign on Russia's oil facilities and other strategic targets was officially launched in early 2024, with a few dozen pilotless aircraft per month.^[6] It was not until year that Ukraine's attacks on Russia's oil infrastructure really took off, with a cumulative total of 108 hits after three years of war, 246 after four years, and a total of 305 strikes when including 24 February 2022 to 25 June 2026.^[5]

A substantial increase in targeted attacks by Ukraine on Russian energy infrastructure began in the second half of 2025. According to media reports, Ukraine carried out over a dozen drone attacks on Russian oil infrastructure between 2 and 24 August, the majority of them striking facilities in Ryazan Oblast and Volgograd Oblast in southwestern Russia. On 27 August, Ukrainian media reported that the Ryazan refinery, one of the main fuel arteries to Moscow, had been struck by a powerful explosion. Boris Aronstein, an independent oil and gas analyst, said that the Ukrainian drone strikes had caused "the most severe crisis in recent years", adding that the size, coordination and repeated waves of the drones makes Russia unable to repair the refineries before the next attack occurs.^[7] According to Reuters, Crimea and Russia's far east were the first territories to experience gasoline shortages in August.^[8]

In September 2025, Reuters reported that Russia was seeing certain fuel grade shortages, with the reduced refinery runs caused by the drone attacks and high borrowing costs leading to private filling stations being unable to stockpile fuel according to retailers and traders. According to Reuters, the attacks on some days had reduced Russian oil refining by almost a fifth, and cut exports from key ports. According to five retailers and traders in the Russian fuel market during September, problems from the shortages started to emerge in the Volga river region and in southern and central Russia as well.^[8] On 29 September, Forbes reported that the issues with fuel had worsened quickly and spread across much of the country, with rising prices, rationing, long queues and pumps running dry in some cases.^[9]

In October 2025, BBC Verify and BBC Russian reported that Ukrainian drone attacks reached a record level of 14 refineries targeted in August, while eight had been targeted in September and 12 in August, and that 21 out of Russia's 38 large refineries had been hit since January 2025.^[10] Meduza reported that some gas stations were shutting down altogether due to being unable to raise prices because of antitrust restrictions. In Crimea, Russian occupation officials limited gasoline sales to 20 liters per customer and imposed price caps.^[11]

In the middle of 2026, Ukrainian missile and drone strikes on key Russian energy infrastructure resulted in an expansion of the crisis, with Politico saying that two-thirds of Russia's regions were reporting fuel supply issues, affecting millions of Russians as well as threatening businesses. In Crimea, a state of emergency was declared, with authorities banning all fuel sales. The Moscow Times said that the fuel shortage also resulted in a disruption of Crimea's tourism industry.^[12][13]

On 2 July 2026, Novaya Gazeta Europe estimated that the fuel crisis had spread to al least 78 of the 83 internationally recognised regions of the Russian Federation (including republics, krais, (autonomous) oblasts and okrugs, and federal cities), plus occupied Crimea and Sevastopol; only 5 regions of Russia had not reported a fuel crisis so far.^[14] In 38 of those regions, officials had imposed restrictions on gasoline sales, some in individual cities, others in entire regions.^[14] Three regions had gone as far as declaring a state of emergency: Penza Oblast, Irkutsk Oblast, and Zabaykalsky Krai;^[14] occupied Crimea and Sevastopol had already done so on 26 June 2026.^[15]

On 6 July, Ukrainian drones hit Russia's largest oil refinery and top producer of gasoline, the Omsk refinery, with two industry sources saying the refinery had halted operations the next day.^[16] The Saratov oil refinery also halted operations soon after a 7 July strike.^[17]

In November 2025, Reuters reported that Russia's oil processing had fallen only 3% during the year despite the attacks, as refineries averted a steep decline by using spare capacity to offset the damage. According to the report based on information from three Russian industry sources, 20% of Russia's refinery capacity was taken offline at the height of strikes between August and October, but this only resulted in a 6% drop in Russia's total refining volume. In terms of revenue, however, the International Energy Agency said that Russia's oil revenue declined to one of the lowest levels seen since the start of the war in 2022.^[18]

In December 2025, Russian energy analyst Craig Kennedy said that new sanctions by the US, EU, and the UK were likely to substantially cut Russia's oil revenues in 2026, while intensifying what he described as the worst crisis in Russia's energy sector since the 1990s.^{[19][needs update]}

In early July 2026, Reuters said that most regions in Russia were restricted with fuel, resulting in growing public concern and resulting in crowdsourced maps and tips about what stations have fuel and short lines, while social media showed Russian drivers getting into fights with each other over the fuel.^[20] Farmers in the wheat belt were worried that, without fuel for their machines, they would not be able to harvest their crops.^[20] On 4 July 2026, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine estimated 42.74% of Russia's oil refining capacity had been disabled at that time, while the International Energy Agency (IEA) said "more than 20%" of capacity has been knocked offline.^[21] Finnish President Alexander Stubb stated in early July 2026 that Russia's capacity to produce and export oil had been reduced by 40% due to the Ukrainian mid- and long-range drone strikes.^[22] The Financial Times reported that Russia produced 4.1 million barrels of oil per day in June 2026 (28% below the 5-year average, and 35% below design capacity); the fuel shortage had so far affected 50 million people (35% of the Russian Federation's population); and by 9 July the majority of regions of Russia had local authorities or retailers imposing fuel sales restrictions.^[23]

On 30 June 2026, Sberbank CEO German Gref told shareholders at a meeting: "I don't believe there is anyone in this country whose primary concern is anything other than an end to military hostilities as soon as possible."^[21] Analyst Jade McGlynn commented: "For four years Russians in major cities have been able to treat this war as something that happens to other people, somewhere else, paid for with other people's sons. Fuel rationing across Russia ends that: when you are sitting in a petrol queue for the better part of a day, the war stops being an abstraction on the evening news."^[21] On the other hand, while she believed the fuel crisis would add more problems for the Kremlin, and wear the population down further, Russian society was not yet capable of organising a movement to stop the war.^[21] International affairs professor Nina Khrushcheva concurred, saying it was more likely that Putin would double down rather than be inclined to peace negotiations, while the Russian population shows "a lot of resignation about what's going on".^[24]

The Kyiv Independent noted that a Russian man from Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai, who had sat in a filling station queue for 39 hours, told Meduza that the Russian authorities were "far too soft" on Ukraine, and suggested that rather than ceasing the war, it should be escalated even further to somehow solve the current fuel crisis.^[21] The BBC received mixed responses from Muscovites queueing for fuel, noting that Putin's approval ratings were down to around 73~74% (which is relatively low for Russia).^[24] A Levada Center poll showed the percentage of Russians believing the country was heading in the right direction had fallen to 52%, down from 61% in May 2026.^[24] A Gallup poll in early July 2026 found that 60% of Russians said economic conditions were getting worse where they lived, a result that has not been so high at any other time in the previous 20 years when that question was asked.^[24]

The Russian government imposed intermittent bans on gasoline exports after March 2024.^[25] In October 2025, the government announced a moratorium on the zeroing of the fuel damper, the exemption of winter diesel fuel from excise duty,^[26] and an extension of the gasoline export ban until 1 May 2026.^[27]

On 23 June 2026, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak stated that the Russian federal government was considering a "total ban" on exports of diesel, after previously halting exports of petrol and jet fuel.^[28]

On 2 July 2026, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree that allows certain oil refineries to lower their production quality standards from Euro-5 gasoline to Euro-3 gasoline, which contains a higher sulfur content (a maximum of 150 milligram per kilogram), and increases safety risks and heavier pollution.^[29] The decree applies until the end of 2026, and the produced gasoline may not be exported outside Russia.^[29] On 29 June, the Kommersant reported that the Kremlin was also considering lowering the standards of diesel production to as low as Euro-2, which had been banned in Russia since 2013.^[29]

Six regions introduced an alternating license plate rotation system – where drivers were only allowed to purchase gasoline on even or odd days, based on their license plate.^[30]