Ukraine’s strikes on Crimea refineries and pipelines spark worst fuel crisis on peninsula since 2014 | World News

Ukraine’s continued strikes on fuel supplies to Crimea have sparked the worst fuel crisis on the Russian-held peninsula since it was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Kyiv has been targeting refineries, depots and pipelines as well as tanker trucks along the land corridor from Russia to Crimea in persistent drone attacks.

The fuel shortages caused by the Ukrainian strikes are threatening to disrupt the tourism-dependent region, as Russia marks the start of its summer holidays with the Russia Day bank holiday on Friday.

Russian holidaymakers travelling to Crimea via Russian-occupied Donetsk yesterday faced long queues at petrol stations.

In the Black Sea resort city of Yevpatoriya in Crimea, most petrol stations were completely closed, and people hoping to fill up at the only working one faced long queues and limited supply, with “No” signs on fuel pump nozzles, due to sale restrictions introduced by local authorities.

A witness in nearby Sevastopol drew attention to the region’s ongoing fuel shortage on Thursday, saying that most local petrol stations were out of fuel, with supplies struggling even to keep up with a rationing regime imposed in recent weeks.

In a rare move, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged the Crimean fuel shortages earlier this week and promised that “measures were being taken” to deal with them.

Fuel is mostly delivered to Crimea, which Russia took ​from Kyiv in 2014, by road and rail via the Russian-held ⁠territories to the north, which Moscow overran in 2022.

Ukraine has been intensifying drone strikes on these routes in recent weeks, as well as on oil facilities in Russia.

This caused fuel shortages in three regions, in Crimea and two regions in Siberia, according to officials. But data compiled by Reuters shows shortages have been reported in 13 Russian regions.

Most ⁠other regions have said the situation is under control, and that panic buying caused some disruptions. Russia denied there were any fuel supply problems.

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The persistent attacks reflect the growing intensity and efficiency of Ukraine’s drone strikes and have caught Russia off-guard and struggling for a response.

The Russian Defence Ministry has been silent about the Ukrainian attacks on the land corridor supplying fuel to Crimea, while some war bloggers have harshly criticised the military for failing to anticipate the strikes and its slow response.

Some suggested military escorts for fuel trucks, while others urged stepping up strikes on Ukrainian bridges, fuel storage sites and other infrastructure.

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Meanwhile, Kyiv and Moscow continued trading strikes overnight, with Ukraine hitting a petrochemicals plant and two more Russian oil refineries while Russia attacked railway stations and electrical substations.

Ukraine’s military General Staff said on Telegram that the military struck two oil refineries in Russia’s Tatarstan region, with a fire breaking out at both.

It added that it also hit a plant in the Samara region that specialises in the production of synthetic rubbers, which are used for making solid fuel for missiles.

Russian drones targeted railway stations, electrical signalling posts and substations in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, killing a railway worker, the chief executive of Ukraine’s state railway Ukrzaliznytsia said on Friday.

Russia’s defence ministry said it downed 231 Ukrainian drones overnight, while Ukraine’s air force said it downed 102 of 117 drones launched from Russia.

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On Friday morning, Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces had taken control of the settlement of Priyut in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, TASS news agency reported, but this was not independently verified.

It comes after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine reached its 1,569th day on Thursday, thereby surpassing the duration of the First World War.