Fuel shortages return to Russian regions after refinery attacks

Fuel shortages have returned to at least half a dozen Russian regions after Ukraine struck more than eight of Russia's major oil refineries over the past two weeks, officials and Russian media said, raising the risk of hours-long queues at filling stations once again.

Ukraine's attacks on refineries intensified sharply after the energy ceasefire declared by US President Donald Trump failed to take effect on October 30. In the latest strike, Russia's second-largest refinery, at Kirishi in the northwest, was hit on Sunday night, the regional governor said on Monday.

The head of the northwestern Karelia region announced on Sunday that fuel stations on highways would limit sales to 30 litres of petrol and 50 litres of diesel, with sales into canisters stopped entirely. 'The current priority is to prevent panic buying and distribute fuel evenly,' Governor Artur Parfenchikov said. The restrictions are being applied at stations of Rosneft, Russia's largest oil company.

The same limits have been imposed in Ulan-Ude, capital of Buryatia in eastern Siberia, and controls have been recorded in the Zabaykalsky, Nizhny Novgorod, Arkhangelsk, Penza and Krasnoyarsk regions as well, officials said. When similar shortages occurred this summer, petrol exports were curbed, and restrictions on diesel exports followed in July. The attacks could also complicate a possible deal between Putin and Trump on Russian diesel exports to the United States and world markets.