The growing nationwide fuel crisis is tightening its grip on big cities across the country, nearly two months into a sweeping Ukrainian long-range drone campaign that has knocked out a significant portion of Russia’s gasoline refining capacity.
But perhaps harder hit are impoverished villages in the vast hinterlands, where locals frequently scrape by living off the land, travelling distances for remote work, while trying to store up reserves of fuel for emergencies — as well as food and fuel for the long winter.
According to the International Energy Agency, Ukrainian drones have hit nearly every major refinery in western Russia. Many refineries have been hit multiple times. In total, experts estimate that between 20 and 40 percent of the country’s total refining capacity has gone offline.
Nearly every region of Russia — even in distant Kamchatka on the Pacific Coast — has felt the effects of the Ukrainian campaign.
Some regions have imposed daily restrictions on fuelling vehicles; some have tried to block hoarding or profiteering by prohibiting filling up portable fuel cans; some have instituted a coupon system, similar to what Soviet authorities did when faced with food shortages.
‘What Are We Supposed To Do Without A Generator?’
The result in many places has been lengthy waits and snaking lines for drivers, not to mention fraying tempers and frustrations.
Novgorod, a northern region located just to the south of Russia’s second-largest city, St Petersburg, is no exception.
On VK, Russia’s largest social media network, locals have taken to posting complaints on the page managed by the regional governor, saying prohibitions on fuelling jerry cans — portable metal gas containers — hurt villages far away from fuelling stations and municipal centres.
“We live in a village with no grocery store, no pharmacy, and no transportation to the amenities of civilisation. For our entire lives, we have driven to a fuelling station 30 kilometres away once a week to fill up our tanks and cans, and sometimes even a couple of extras for the generator in case of a power outage,” wrote a woman who identified herself as Irina Tryaskina.
“What are we supposed to do without a generator? Cook over a fire and store food in the cellar?
“How am I supposed to fill up my tractor out in the fields?” another person who gave their name as Aleksandr Vasilyev wrote. “Am I supposed to drive it several kilometres just to fill it up? And if I can’t gas up my tractor, then accordingly I — or more precisely, my cows — won’t have any food for the winter.”
Another woman named Alena, whose name RFE/RL changed to prevent potential prosecution, said it takes around 10 litres of gasoline to drive from her village to the district administrative centre of Lyubytino and back.
“It’s laughable,” she told RFE/RL. “And what are you left with? And what if there’s no gas there the next time you drive? You just leave your car there?”
On top of the car, there are small gas-powered tools for running her household: the rototiller, the chainsaw, the generator, and the tractor. She said, “And the electricity keeps going out, so without refrigeration in the summer, it’s a disaster.”
Once she said she complained to the local municipal office: the official said it was her fault for moving to the country and that she should’ve stayed in town.
‘We’re Not Moscow Or St Petersburg’
Aleksandr, who lives about a 30-minute drive from Lyubytino, in the village of Komarovo, said villagers should always keep at least four jerry cans of gasoline in reserve.
“We’re not Moscow or St Petersburg,” he said. “Right now, we’re collecting firewood, clearing roads of debris, and making hay. And everyone relies on a generator when the power goes out.”
In Dubrovka, southwest of Komarovo, on the Msta River, a man who gave his name as Matvei said the fuel shortages were making it difficult to mow the 15 hectares of land he owns.
He said he brings gasoline back from St Petersburg, where he has a job, to fuel the tractor and also brings gas back for other villagers as needed.
Irina, a woman from Novinka an hour’s drive north of Lyubytino, said storms routinely knock out electricity supplies, so locals rely on gas-powered generators.
“We have no proper phone lines here. No electricity. Roads are horrible. Health care is a disaster. It’s impossible to get to stores,” she told RFE/RL. “And now they’re even taking away our ability to drive to the district centre. I won’t even mention motorboats. Are we really supposed to take our boats and motorboats to the gas station? Fishermen always brought gasoline in jerrycans, but no one’s thinking about them now.”
Although villagers are aware of the Ukrainian drone strikes on oil refineries and other infrastructure, few link the resulting shortages affecting village life to the Ukrainian campaign or the ongoing Russian war, now in its fifth year.
Anna, a woman from the village of Ivanteyevsky who asked that her surname not be used, did tie the shortages to Ukraine conflict
“We are in fact at war,” she said, adding that her nephew was at the front, as were the husbands of two friends.
She also said a friend’s husband works in an oil refinery in the Leningrad region. And she has relatives in the Belgorod region, a region bordering Ukraine that has been battered by Ukrainian attacks and where thousands have evacuated.
“They say that protecting these kinds of facilities is very difficult. All my relatives are in the Belgorod region, and I understand perfectly well that compared to them, our district is paradise,” she said.
