Residents of Russian-occupied Crimea are queueing for up to 10 hours for petrol, with many stations limiting sales to just 20 litres per person using prepaid vouchers — if any fuel is available at all. The shortages, which have sparked angry social media posts and forced one Simferopol resident to walk to work, are the direct result of a sustained Ukrainian drone campaign targeting Moscow's supply lines.
"I walk to work now. Of course, this is less convenient than driving, but not a huge problem," the resident told the independent website Bereg. "All I've got to do now is buy a horse!"
“Ukraine's drone strikes on Russian supply lines have triggered fuel shortages in Crimea, with 10-hour queues and 20-litre limits.”
The crisis stems from recent Ukrainian strikes on a key motorway and bridge linking the southern Russian city of Rostov to Crimea via the occupied port city of Mariupol. Clément Molin, an analyst at the French-based think tank Atum Mundi, described the road as "basically the backbone of Russian occupation in the south". He told the BBC that Ukraine had carried out 300 drone strikes on trucks, including 30 tankers, since the start of May, with the campaign intensifying this month.
The impact on military logistics has been severe. According to Robert Brovdi, Ukraine's drone forces commander, military cargo traffic on the road decreased by 71% between late May and early June. Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014, is strategically vital for Moscow — its forces have used the peninsula to launch drones and missiles at the rest of Ukraine. It is also a popular summer holiday destination for Russians, and tourists who arrived before the crisis are now struggling to find fuel to leave, prompting the Moscow-installed local authorities to launch a special hotline to assist them.
Videos circulating online show long lines at petrol stations across the region, and there are reports of skyrocketing petrol and diesel prices. "Unfortunately, it does not appear possible to fully satisfy the demand for fuel at the current moment," the Kremlin-appointed regional head, Sergei Aksyonov, admitted on 5 June. He added that hundreds of buses would not be leaving depots due to shortages.
On the evening of 8 June, Russia's energy ministry for the first time acknowledged problems with fuel supplies in "the southern regions", a phrase likely referring to the occupied territories.