Petrol shortages and ‘oil rain’ bring Russia-Ukraine war home to Moscow
Ukraine increases strikes on Russian oil and weapons infrastructure as it garners aid and begins EU talks. Months of Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure
Ukraine increases strikes on Russian oil and weapons infrastructure as it garners aid and begins EU talks. Months of Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure have led to widespread fuel rationing, with Russian President Vladimir Putin now unable to mask the war’s economic effects. The Russian petrol shortages come amid other good news for Ukraine, which during the past week garnered 4 billion euros ($4.6bn) in new military aid commitments from its allies for anti-ballistic interceptors, long-range artillery and unmanned systems. Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine and Germany also signed an agreement to develop a European anti-ballistic interceptor missile – a longstanding desire of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The European Union, too, released 6 billion euros ($6.9bn) in military aid from its European Peace Facility and started talks that are expected to lead to Ukraine’s membership. Both developments had long been delayed by Hungarian premier Viktor Orban, who lost power in April. After opening the first of six negotiation clusters with Brussels to join the EU, Zelenskyy urged the EU Intergovernmental Conference to move faster and open the remaining five simultaneously. “Ukraine has earned the right to move faster … We are ready to open all clusters. We have done our work. Everyone in Europe knows this,” he said. Rationing in Russia Russian independent news outlet The Bell reported rationing in 53 Russian regions and in occupied Ukraine on Wednesday. That rationing had reached the principal urban centres of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, where the Tatneft chain of petrol stations on Monday began limiting customers to 20 litres of petrol (5.3 gallons) and 40 litres of diesel at a time “for technical reasons”.
Other petrol chains, including Rosneft, placed upper limits of 90 litres per sale. Rosneft and Bashneft, the state oil company of the Republic of Bashkortostan, on Tuesday reportedly banned sales of petrol in canisters due to “increased seasonal demand”. These reports came after unusually low oil production during May. The International Energy Agency reported that Russia produced 8.74 million barrels per day of oil last month, versus 8.96 million bpd in April, approximately 100,000 barrels below target. Russian oil producers have in the past few weeks announced production cuts following damage to infrastructure caused by Ukrainian strikes. Russia was reacting to the shortages by allowing some refineries to circulate under-refined petrol with a higher sulphur content, Russian business newspaper Kommersant reported. Reuters reported that Russia also planned to increase imports of refined petroleum products from Asia. Ukraine’s war on the Russian budget Kyiv gave its strikes added political import by striking the Moscow Oil Refinery twice during the week, on Tuesday and Thursday, sending black clouds of smoke into the Moscow skyline that residents reported caused “oil rain” and covered surfaces in black soot. “The company’s products account for over 38 percent of the capital region’s fuel consumption, including supplying aviation fuel to Domodedovo, Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, and Zhukovsky airports,” said the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukraine’s General Staff said one of the refinery’s primary processing units was damaged in the first strike, while the second caused five simultaneous fires, reportedly damaging a combined processing unit, a secondary processing unit and a tank farm.
The BriefWire