Ukraine War08 July, 20262 min read
Ukraine Hits Russian Fuel Tankers Near Crimea, Robert Brovdi Says 14 Ships Hit
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Ukraine hit shadow tankers supplying Crimea and targeted Russia's Omsk refinery. Russian fuel shortages have spread nationwide, with queues and rationing at gas stations.
Sea of Azov hits
Ukraine escalated attacks on Russian fuel tankers in the Sea of Azov as it sought to disrupt supplies to occupied Crimea, with CNBC reporting that Ukraine’s drone force commander Robert Brovdi, known as Magyar, said via Telegram that 14 Russian ships were hit on Thursday evening.
CNBC said the number of Russian vessels stuck by Ukrainian drones had risen to 35 over the last 96 hours, while also noting CNBC could not independently verify the report.
In parallel, Al Jazeera reported that Ukraine’s forces struck Russian shadow tankers attempting to supply occupied Crimea with fuel, and that Robert Brovdi said his forces had struck 19 Russian tankers, a cargo ship and a ferry between July 6 and 8.
Al Jazeera also quoted Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk saying, “They had few options left. It’s either a land corridor or a sea connection,” as it described Russia rerouting fuel supplies to Crimea after Ukraine deprived it of overland routes.
Fuel crisis and politics
As Ukraine’s drone campaign pressed deeper into Russia’s energy system, CNBC said drone strikes had triggered nationwide gasoline shortages and that Russia’s president Vladimir Putin acknowledged the impact of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian fuel production for the first time. CNBC quoted Beat Wittmann, chairman and partner at Porta Advisors, telling CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” that “The reaction can be escalate or back down and negotiate,” and that he expected escalation from an “increasingly difficult situation.”
CNN reported that almost all of Russia’s 83 regions were seeing gasoline shortages or reported disruptions to supply, and that more than 50 of its internationally recognized regions were officially reporting supply problems. CNN also quoted Putin in a state TV interview on Sunday saying, “We are currently seeing certain shortages, although they are not critical,” while adding that Putin said the most urgent task was “to rapidly and significantly increase production of the air defense systems.”
Stakes across Russia
The fuel squeeze described by BBC and CNN was tied to the broader pattern of strikes, with BBC saying queues for petrol and diesel were visible “at almost every petrol station” in Moscow and that authorities could not ensure enough fuel even in the capital. BBC quoted one resident, Yekaterina, saying she was “not happy” and that there was “panic because everybody thinks there will be no oil,” while another resident, Elmar, complained that “You are wasting hours to fill up.”
CNN said the crisis escalated first in Russian-controlled Crimea and prompted a state of emergency and a full ban on fuel sales to ordinary people on June 21, and it reported that at least three regions declared a “state of heightened alert.” CNN also described how the pressure is being managed through limits and enforcement, including police in Irkutsk fining four people accused of reselling gas on the black market at inflated prices, and it quoted Putin warning that the strikes were designed to “create uncertainty for us, or even better to lead to a schism in Russian society.”