Petrol was available at fewer than three in 10 petrol stations across Russia on Wednesday, the latest sign that a second wave of fuel shortages is hitting harder than the first, with queues forming at pumps in Moscow for the first time.
The monitoring app Gdebenz put nationwide petrol availability at 28% of filling stations on Wednesday, down from 41% a week earlier.
Fuel restrictions — including limits on the volume sold per customer, QR-based rationing and odd-even number plate schemes — were in place in nearly all regions as of last Saturday, according to Benzinmap, which tracks restrictions and prices nationwide.
Gazprom Neft filling stations in Moscow set a temporary cap of 40 litres per fill-up. Tatneft capped petrol at 50 litres and diesel at 60. By Wednesday, the Yandex Fuel service showed AI-92 petrol available at just one in 10 stations in the capital.
The crisis is the direct result of Kyiv's sustained drone campaign against Russian oil infrastructure in a bid to weaken its war machine amid Moscow's ongoing all-out invasion of Ukraine. By early July every major refinery in Russia had been struck at least once.
