Starting in August 2025, increased Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries have caused widespread damage and a drop in production across the Russian oil industry, leading to an ongoing fuel crisis in the country.
There have been several gasoline crises in Russia since the 2010s started, mostly recently in 2023. As part of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Ukrainian drones had been targeting Russian refineries since 2024, though despite causing expense and inconvenience, the attacks did not result in major problems. [1]
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. [2] According to Reuters, Crimea and Russia's far east were the first territories to experience a shortage of gasoline in August. [3]
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 certain days have 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, problems with shortages started to emerge in the Volga river region and in southern and central Russia as well in September. [3] On 29 September, Forbes reported that the issues had 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. [4]
In October, BBC Verify and BBC Russian found that reported Ukrainian drone attacks reached a record level of 14 refineries targeted in August, while eight had been targeted in September, meaning that 21 out of Russia's 38 large refineries had been hit since January 2025. [5] 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 were reported to have limited gasoline sales to 20 liters per customer and imposed price caps. [6]