For years, the Kremlin used energy as a weapon of coercion, repeatedly warning Ukraine and its Western allies that they would freeze without Russian oil and gas. The reality of August 2026 has turned that propaganda upside down.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. On Wednesday, Aug. 20, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak confirmed that the country had begun importing fuel. Novak did not provide details on the volumes or sources of the imports. While attempting to reassure the domestic market, he framed the outages as temporary, stating that the government expects several oil refineries to resume operations in the near future after “scheduled maintenance.” But the glaring question remains: Why are so many of Russia’s critical refineries suddenly going offline for “maintenance” at once? Moscow wouldn’t say. However, the reality on the ground points directly to Kyiv’s asymmetric campaign. Repeated Ukrainian strikes have damaged refineries, depots and terminals deep inside Russia, forcing refining throughput to fall sharply while gasoline production struggles to meet domestic demand. The irony of the fuel war Make no mistake: Russia continues exporting large volumes of crude to countries such as India while increasingly importing refined fuel from abroad, with the sources of those imports currently not publicly disclosed amid sanctions concerns. In August, Russia was expected to receive nearly 270,000 metric tons of refined products from Asia, including gasoline from India.