Fuel trucks fail to reach Crimea after Ukrainian strikes, officials admit
Ukraine has intensified strikes on Russian-occupied Crimea (photo: Getty Images)
Fuel supply problems in Crimea emerged after Ukrainian strikes on Russian logistics and fuel infrastructure. Russian-installed authorities were forced to postpone gasoline distribution through the coupon system, Reuters reports.
According to the agency, statements by Sevastopol's so-called governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, that gasoline coupons could temporarily not be redeemed coincided with comments by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Kyiv's long-running campaign against energy facilities in Russia and the territories it has annexed had proven effective.
Reuters recalled that Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, introduced fuel rationing last month due to shortages on the peninsula.
"Unfortunately, oil tanker trucks were unable to come to the city tonight," Razvozhayev wrote on Telegram, stressing that public transport and municipal services, as well as emergency and government vehicles, would receive priority access to fuel on Thursday.
"I am addressing everyone: there is no point in lining up at... the gas stations tomorrow," he said late on Wednesday, adding that existing fuel coupons would be canceled and new ones issued on Thursday.
Razvozhayev later reported that more than two dozen Ukrainian drones had been shot down in the early hours of Thursday during a new attack on Sevastopol, the peninsula's second-largest city and the base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
It is noted that the fuel shortage in the city comes as Ukraine intensifies its campaign of medium- and long-range drone and missile strikes against Russian industrial facilities, forcing Russia, the world's third-largest oil producer, to cut oil production.
"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," Zelenskyy said in his evening address.
After Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries and fuel depots in occupied territories, Russian forces began experiencing fuel supply problems.
As a result, restrictions on the sale of gasoline and other types of fuel were introduced in occupied Crimea.
Yesterday, it became known that Russian logistics suffered new losses. In particular, the Chonhar Bridge, which connects occupied Crimea with mainland Ukraine, was destroyed after several drone strikes.
