Ukraine has disabled 17% of Russian refineries, — Reuters

Ukrainian drone attacks have paralyzed part of Russia’s oil refining, causing disruptions to gasoline in the regions.

Strikes on at least 10 Russian oil refineries have knocked out about 17% of capacity, or 1.1 million barrels per day. Reuters reports.

This happened at the height of the summer season, when demand for gasoline traditionally increases due to the activity of tourists and farmers. The consequences are already noticeable: fuel shortages have been recorded in a number of areas of temporarily occupied Ukraine, in the south of the Russian Federation and in the Far East. Due to the lack of A-95 gasoline, drivers were forced to switch to more expensive fuel.

In recent weeks, the Lukoil plant in Volgograd, Rosneft in Ryazan, enterprises in the Rostov, Samara, Saratov and Krasnodar regions have come under attack. The fire at the Novoshakhtynsk refinery continued on Monday after the Ukrainian drone attack. Drones also hit the Druzhba pipeline, the Novatek export terminal in Ust-Luga, and a fuel complex on the Baltic coast.

Experts note that the enterprises have not lost all their capacity, but even partial shutdowns create problems for domestic supplies.

The oil and gas sector remains critically important for the Kremlin: it provides a quarter of budget revenues, which are used to finance, in particular, a 25 percent increase in military spending in 2025. At the same time, sanctions have forced Moscow to sell oil at discounts and practically curtail gas exports to Europe.

The day before, USM wrote that the Novatek plant in the port of Ust-Luga suspended work after an attack by Ukrainian drones.