Putin acknowledges fuel shortages as Ukrainian strikes hit Russian refineries
President Vladimir Putin acknowledged for the first time that Russia is experiencing fuel shortages after months of Ukrainian drone strikes on its refineries, saying the country is “observing a certain shortage, but it’s not critical.”
The admission followed a fresh overnight assault that set fire to the Sloviansk refinery in southern Russia, killing one person. The plant processes close to 4 million tonnes of crude a year and feeds petroleum exports through Black Sea ports. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a second refinery, in the Yaroslavl region roughly 700 kilometres from the border, was also hit.
Ukraine’s campaign against refining capacity has produced long queues at filling stations and pushed authorities in several regions to ration fuel — pressure that Putin’s careful “not critical” framing is meant to contain. By striking refineries rather than oil fields, Kyiv is targeting the part of the supply chain that is hardest to repair quickly and most directly felt by Russian consumers, turning a battlefield stalemate into domestic economic strain.