Russia · Ukraine · Vladimir Putin · Fortune Technology
The fuel shortage ravaging Russia has forced motorists around the country to wait in endless lines to fill up
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Ukraine’s months-long campaign of drone strikes on oil infrastructure deep inside Russian territory has forced refineries to shut down.
Key facts
- One such motorist, Alyona Sadovnikova, told the New York Times that she, her husband and their 18-month-old baby got in line at 11 p.m. one recent Friday and waited until 5 p.m
- I was horrified: Are we in the Soviet Union now where you had to get coupons to buy sausage?” Sadovnikova, a 26-year-old who works in social media, told the Times
- In Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Russia illegally annexed in 2014, the fuel shortage forced authorities to declare that fuel is now mostly reserved for municipal and emergency services with sales
- In the Siberian city of Irkutsk—about 3,000 miles from Ukraine—gas station lines are so long that local officials have vowed to provide portable toilets for Russians waiting along the road
Summary
The fuel shortage ravaging Russia has forced motorists around the country to wait in endless lines to fill up, evoking memories of communist-era privation. The head of Russia’s biggest oil company even called the damage to refineries “unprecedented,” according to a letter to President Vladimir Putin that was leaked to Russian newspaper Kommersant. The long-range drones and widespread shortages mean Russian civilians far from the frontlines are suffering the effects of Putin’s war on Ukraine. In the Siberian city of Irkutsk—about 3,000 miles from Ukraine—gas station lines are so long that local officials have vowed to provide portable toilets for Russians waiting along the road.