Russia strikes Ukrainian gas stations daily as its own fuel crisis deepens at home

Russian forces have struck gas stations across Ukraine every day since June 17, according to the independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo.

In the early hours of July 1, Russian forces struck five gas stations in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killing one woman and wounding three others. A gas station in the Chernihiv region was also hit.

Over a two-week period, Agentstvo documented a series of strikes on gas stations in six Ukrainian regions: Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv.

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed responsibility for some of the strikes during that period, saying they were intended to disrupt Ukrainian military logistics.

The Telegram channel Rybar, which is close to the Russian Defense Ministry, reported that Russia began ramping up strikes on Ukrainian gas stations as early as spring. According to Agentstvo, Russian forces have targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, including gas stations, since the start of the full-scale war.

Rybar’s authors describe the strikes as systematic, writing that in recent weeks they had observed “a deliberate campaign of strikes” on gas stations in Ukraine. The channel’s authors also said “the campaign of strikes on gas stations is already in full swing and gradually picking up pace” — describing it as an attempt to trigger a fuel crisis in major front-line cities.

Serhiy Beskrestnov, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, said that civilian gas stations are not connected to military fuel supplies and that Russia is trying to destroy all front-line gas stations in retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian logistics.

In recent months, Ukraine has intensified its attacks on oil facilities inside Russia, as well as on Russian logistics in the annexed territories. A fuel crisis has begun across Russia and in Crimea.