In the capital of the Siberian region of Zabaikalsky -- some 6,300 kilometers from Ukraine -- the line of drivers desperate to fill up their car tanks was 3 kilometers long.In some Zabaikalsky districts, municipal garbage collection has been suspended because there's no fuel for the trucks. In yet another Siberian location, local villagers are fighting wildfires on their own because firefighters have no gas for their fire trucks.And one woman said that when her diabetic husband fell into a coma and she called for an ambulance, the dispatcher told her to find her own transport as the ambulance was out of fuel.Far from Ukraine's battlefields, where Russian forces are still grinding forward at a glacial pace, a mounting fuel crisis prompted by a targeted Ukrainian drone campaign is seeping into the lives of average Russians.In Moscow, the fuel crisis has already hit home. As Russia's center of gravity, the city has outsized resonance, and gas shortages, and public complaints, are directly in the line of sight for Kremlin bureaucrats, business leaders, military officers, and top decision-makers.But the effect is no less meaningful in the far-flung hinterlands, where average people are also grumbling and suffering.For Ukraine, that's the goal.
Far From Ukraine War, Russia Fuel Crisis Consumes Local Worries
There’s no gasoline for ambulances in one region. In another, they’ve suspended garbage pickup because there’s no fuel for trucks. There’s a robust black market where you can pay someone to hold your place in endless lines of drivers hoping to fill up cars. Russia’s gasoline crisis is deepening.
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