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Gas stations have run dry in some regions of Russia after Ukrainian drones struck refineries and other oil infrastructure in recent weeks, with motorists waiting in long lines and officials resorting to rationing or cutting off sales altogether.
Wholesale prices on the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange for A-95 gas — the highest octane — spiked to record highs last week, soaring to about 50 percent higher than in January, as demand soared from farmers seeking to bring in the harvest and Russians hitting the roads for their last big vacation of the summer.
Russian media outlets reported fuel shortages are hitting consumers in several regions in the Far East and on the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed from Ukraine by Moscow in 2014.
Media outlets in the Primorye region, which borders North Korea, reported long lines and prices of about 78 rubles per liter (approximately $3.58 per gallon) at gas stations in the area, where the average monthly wage is about $1,200. Journalists at local news outlet Primpress found other drivers trying to sell gas online for as much as 220 rubles per liter (about $10.12 per gallon).
In the Kurilsky district of the Kuril Islands north of Japan, shortages of lower octane A-92 gas forced officials to halt public sales outright Monday. In Crimea, a popular resort area, some companies sold fuel only to holders of coupons or special cards.
Normal price increases are aggravated this year
Russia is no stranger to gasoline price increases at the end of summer. But this year’s shortages have been aggravated by Ukraine’s attacks on oil refineries in the 3 1/2-year-old war. Larger, more concentrated attacks are causing more damage and hampering production, all timed to coincide with peak demand.
Ukraine has targeted energy infrastructure before, but the recent strikes have been more successful, with more drones targeting a more concentrated group of facilities.
“The Ukrainians are attacking an arc of refineries, starting from Ryazan, which is south of Moscow, all the way to Volgograd. That region is where people are driving through on their way to (resorts on) the Black Sea. That’s the region where most of the harvest operations are going on. And that’s also a rather densely populated region,” Sergey Vakulenko, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told The Associated Press.

Between Aug. 2 and Aug. 24, Ukraine attacked oil infrastructure at least 12 times, according to media reports. Of those attacks, at least 10 were targeting sites in the Ryazan-Volgograd arc in southwestern Russia.
These attacks have damaged many oil refineries but have not destroyed them outright, Vakulenko said, adding that most of the facilities are extremely resilient against fires.
But they can slow refinery activity, as shown by a fall in the intake of crude oil to be turned into diesel, gasoline or other products by roughly 200,000 to 250,000 barrels per day, said Gary Peach, oil markets analyst at Energy Intelligence.
“That’s just enough to make their gasoline industry feel some pain, especially during the high consumption months in the summer,” he told AP. Gasoline production fell 8.6 percent in the first 19 days of August, compared with a year earlier, and diesel production was down 10.3 percent.
Other war-related issues have caused even more consumer pain. Ukrainian drone strikes repeatedly have disrupted Russian transportation networks, particularly air traffic, causing more people to travel by car and increasing demand for gas, Vakulenko said.
Inflation also has made it less profitable for suppliers who normally buy gasoline early in the year for sale in the higher-priced summer months, and many entrepreneurs simply decided not to bother this year, he said.
Individually, none of these problems caused lasting or widespread disruption in Russia. But together, they have transformed an expected annual price fluctuation into a problem for the government.
To try to ease the shortage, Russia has paused gasoline exports, with officials Wednesday declaring a full ban until Sept. 30 and a partial ban affecting traders and intermediaries until Oct. 31. Oil company managers have also been summoned to government meetings twice this month to discuss the shortages, Russian media reported.
Moscow is largely spared from shortages
While officials appear to be concerned, the gasoline shortfall “isn’t system critical,” Peach said.
So far, the shortage remains confined to certain areas — the Far East and Crimea — because these regions usually are supplied by fewer refineries and present greater transportation demands.
Moscow has been spared the latest gasoline price spike because it is well-supplied from major refineries in Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod, cities a few hours’ drive away. The capital also has a refinery in the city itself.
Russia is not at immediate risk of grinding to a halt — even in more vulnerable regions, experts say. Although private drivers may feel some pain at the gas pump, most buses and trucks run on diesel, for which Russia has a surplus. The military, which largely uses diesel fuel, also is insulated from any shocks.
Vakulenko wrote in a recent commentary that annual diesel production is “more than double than what is needed.”
That doesn’t mean the situation still couldn’t deteriorate. Refineries that make gasoline for Russia’s domestic market also make diesel and other products for export — a vital source of income amid heavy Western sanctions.
Industry observers say Ukraine’s drones target key refinery equipment, including the distillation column that separates incoming crude oil into other products, including gasoline, diesel, fuel for ships and asphalt. If damaged, it must be repaired or replaced for the refinery to function. Repairs could be difficult if foreign parts are needed.
The gasoline crisis is expected to ease by late September as demand subsides and the annual summer maintenance for many refineries is finished.
Still, the crisis highlights a vulnerability on the home front that has the potential to be exploited further as drone warfare evolves.
 

LONDON: The British government argued a court ruling requiring asylum seekers to be temporarily evicted from a hotel risks sparking further chaotic protests outside the residences housing them, as it appealed against the decision on Thursday.
Last week, the High Court in London granted a temporary injunction to stop asylum seekers from being housed in the Bell Hotel in Epping, about 32 km northeast of London in the county of Essex.
The building had become a focal point of sometimes violent demonstrations by anti- and pro-immigration groups after an Ethiopian asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault offenses, and opposition lawmakers have called for more protests and legal action to have all such hotels closed down.
According to a regular tracker of voters’ concerns, immigration is now the biggest issue amid anger over record numbers of asylum seekers arriving in small boats across the Channel, including more than 28,000 this year.
On Thursday, the hotel owners and the British government sought permission to appeal against the injunction granted to the local authority on 
planning grounds.
Lawyers for the government argued that the High Court judge had failed to consider the significant national impact the ruling would have. They suggested that Epping Council, run by the opposition Conservatives, was seeking to exploit nationwide tensions over immigration for political gain.

“Epping’s planning concerns appear to be disproportionately targeted toward asylum accommodation, which suggests that its motivation is not solely, or even principally, the integrity of its planning regime,” the lawyers said in a written submission to the Court of Appeal.
“The granting of an interim injunction in the present case runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further protests, some of which may be disorderly, around other asylum accommodation.”
They also argued that any closure of hotels would put pressure on the system to house the thousands of asylum seekers waiting to have their cases determined. Britain currently houses about 30,000 migrants in more than 200 hotels across the country.
Earlier this week, Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s anti-migration Reform UK party, which is leading in opinion polls, announced a plan to repeal human rights laws to allow for mass deportations of asylum seekers, which he said was needed to prevent “major civil disorder.”
Pro-migrant groups say far-right groups and opportunistic politicians are deliberately seeking to exploit and inflame tensions for their own ends.
Critics say that housing asylum seekers in hotels, often young men who are not allowed to work, puts the local community at risk, and point to recent incidents where some migrants have been accused of serious crimes, including the rape and sexual assault of young girls.
This week, an Ethiopian asylum seeker went on trial, accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl and another woman in Epping, accusations he denied.