Officials in the Russian-controlled Crimean city of Sevastopol announced Wednesday that fuel rationing distribution has been halted after delivery trucks were prevented from entering the city due to recent Ukrainian strikes on supply lines.
Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev stated that gasoline rationing vouchers would temporarily not be accepted, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy highlighted the success of Ukraine’s ongoing strategy of targeting energy infrastructure in Russia and territories under its control.
The Crimean peninsula, which Russia took control of in 2014 before launching its full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, began fuel rationing last month due to supply shortages across the region.
“Unfortunately, oil tanker trucks were unable to come to the city tonight,” Razvozhayev posted on Telegram, noting that refueling priority on Thursday would go to public transportation, utilities, emergency services and government vehicles.
“I am addressing everyone: there is no point in lining up at… the gas stations tomorrow,” he wrote late Wednesday, explaining that current fuel rationing vouchers would be voided and replacement ones distributed Thursday.
Razvozhayev later reported on Telegram that more than two dozen Ukrainian drones were shot down early Thursday during another assault on Sevastopol, the peninsula’s second-largest city and headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
The fuel shortage crisis comes as Ukraine escalates its campaign of medium and long-range drone and missile attacks on Russian industrial targets, which has already compelled Moscow to reduce oil production in the world’s third-largest producing nation.
“In recent months, we are especially grateful for the mid-strikes: Russian military logistics throughout the entire depth of the temporarily occupied territory are now within reach of Ukrainian drones,” Zelenskiy stated in his evening address.
Ukrainian forces attacked the Russian-occupied Mariupol port, Kyiv announced Wednesday, marking the latest in a series of drone strikes on logistics infrastructure across a vital section of Moscow-controlled southern Ukraine that connects Russia to Crimea.
The port assault, which Ukraine’s military reported caused a complete power outage at the facility, came after two earlier strikes this week on a bridge connecting the Russian-occupied Kherson region to the Crimean peninsula.
Thursday brought reports from authorities in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, located across from Crimea, that a blaze erupted near the Afipsky refinery due to falling drone fragments as air defense systems fought off an aerial assault.
Regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev reported on Telegram that three individuals were wounded when drone debris sparked a fire in a Krasnodar city apartment building and during a drone strike on the neighboring Seversky district, though he provided no additional information. The Ilsky refinery is also situated in that area.
This followed a major Wednesday drone offensive against Russia’s Volga region of Samara, located more than 900 kilometers (550 miles) from the battle lines, which according to sources compelled state oil company Rosneft to stop operations at its Kuibyshev oil refinery.
“Our impact reaches Russia’s border regions as well. The enemy feels it, and we will continue to expand it,” Zelenskiy posted on Telegram late Wednesday.
