I wonder if that’s because they’re exporting gasoline rather than making it available there.
kagis
No. Apparently a few days back, the Kremlin also banned exports.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/25/world/russia-export-fuel-ban-ukranian-drones-intl
Kremlin bans fuel exports until the end of the year as Russia’s supply is disrupted by Ukrainian drones
So I assume that they can’t actually even produce enough for domestic use at this point.
EDIT: Nah, the shortages are specific to Crimea, so it’s probably a logistics breakdown there. Looking back over the article:
As The Bell notes, Crimea is also facing additional challenges due to severe weather conditions near the Kerch Strait, further complicating supply lines and exacerbating the fuel deficit. This is the first time such restrictions have been imposed on fuel sales to private individuals in the region.
This was from a month back, saying that at that point, they had a 20% margin and that if there was actually a domstic shortfall, then they’d expect rationing:
https://carnegieendowment.org/russia-eurasia/politika/2025/08/russia-war-gasoline-problem?lang=en
On top of this, annual gasoline production in Russia exceeds domestic demand by up to 20 percent…
If the worst comes to the worst, a crisis measure would be gasoline rationing.
You’d expect nationwide rationing rather than just rationing in Crimea in that case. Has burned through their supply for export, though, or they wouldn’t have cut that off.
Shortages of gasoline are not limited to Crimea. The shortages are at their worst in Crimea, but there are kilometre-long queues in several parts of the Russia. Most parts, even!
Gasoline typically isn’t shipped too far. You can of course, but generally you get it from the closest refinery. Since ukraine has targeted every refinery close gas near crimea is sure to but hard to find. they probably don’t have enough tanks to ship what is needed, and even if they did they have to ration somewhere.
If you can’t protect your oil refineries… what can you protect? It is truly astounding seeing a semi-modernized military completely dismantle itself until the point that the only thing left is clueless grunts with ak47s and shahed flying bomb factories.
The Russian military is certainly threatening given its raw size but can it even be considered a professional military at this point if their only effective combat strategy is to isolate and disperse their troops enough to the point that they aren’t concentrated enough to be targets?
Ukraine have recently destroyed over 20% of refining capacity, so there will be shortages
