One villager worried he wouldn’t be able to cut firewood in time for winter because his chainsaw was out of gas. Another said he couldn’t cut hay for winter feed for his cows due to a lack of fuel for his tractor.And the village fishermen can’t trawl rivers for fish because of a ban on filling the jerry cans needed for their boats’ outboard engines.Nearly two months into a sweeping Ukrainian long-range drone campaign that has knocked out a serious chunk of Russia’s gasoline refining capacity, the growing nationwide fuel crisis is tightening its grip on big cities across the country.But perhaps harder hit are impoverished villages in the vast hinterlands, where locals frequently scrape by living off the land, traveling distances for remote work, while trying to store up reserves of fuel for emergencies -- as well as food and fuel for the long winter.
'What Are We Supposed To Do Without A Generator?'The result in many places has been lengthy waits and snaking lines for drivers, not to mention fraying tempers and frustrations.Novgorod, a northern region located just to the south of Russia’s second largest city, St. Petersburg, is no exception.On VK, Russia’s largest social media network, locals have taken to posting complaints on the page managed by the regional governor, saying prohibitions on fueling jerry cans -- portable metal gas containers -- hurts villages far away from fueling stations and municipal centers."We live in a village with no grocery store, no pharmacy, no transportation to the amenities of civilization. Our whole lives, once a week, we've driven to a fueling station 30 kilometers away to fill up our tanks and cans, or maybe even a couple extra (for the generator) just in case of a power outage,” one woman who wrote under the name Irina Tryaskina wrote.“What are we supposed to do without a generator? Cook over a fire and store food in the cellar?
