After pulling into the queue of vehicles creeping into the lone service station selling fuel in the devastated Kyiv suburb of Bucha, Olha Boholey still had at least an hour to wait.
She could only buy 10 litres of fuel if she got to a pump before it ran dry.
‘The shortage of gasoline is severely limiting what we can do,’ said the 37-year-old lawyer, who was waiting with her parents in the back of her SUV on Monday. ‘I’m at a loss for what else to do.’
Due to Moscow’s attacks on energy infrastructure, transportation bottlenecks, and a supply cutoff by Russia and Belarus, Boholey and millions of other Ukrainian people are expected to endure several weeks – if not longer – of fuel shortages.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine has promised to take steps by mid-May to alleviate the fuel shortages that have forced the closure of half of the country’s 7,000 petrol stations and caused long queues at those with restricted supplies.
An increase in demand owing to significant numbers of people returning to the region after escaping the failed Russian assault on the capital is adding to the fuel shortage near Kyiv, according to Dmytro Mysko, who owns three BRSM Oil service stations.
‘Demand has increased multiple times as a result of people returning,’ Mysko explained. Before running out of gasoline last weekend, one of his stations was servicing roughly double its average daily volume of around 400 cars, he claimed.
Serhiy Kuyun of A95 Consulting Group, an energy research business, believes that fixing the problem is only a matter of time.
‘I believe it will take till May to complete it, and by June, we should have a more or less reliable supply.’
‘I’m not worried about the army at all.’ He added, ‘We have substantial reserves prepared for them,’ as well as reserves for municipal services. ‘The private customer will bear the brunt of the discomfort.’
‘The occupants are purposefully destroying the infrastructure for the production, supply, and storage of petroleum,’ Zelenskiy stated last Friday.
According to government and industry officials, the Russian navy and sea mines have blockaded the country’s Black Sea ports, preventing tankers from replenishing inventories.
Ukraine’s stores had signed contracts with European suppliers, according to Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, and the shortages will be eliminated by the end of this week.
However, because many bridges and highways have been wrecked or damaged, transporting those goods may be difficult. Multiple security checkpoints also impede traffic.
Last week, Russian soldiers bombed the Kremenchuk oil refinery, putting the last of Ukraine’s two main oil refineries out of action, and damaged at least 20 large stores in what Moscow calls a ‘special operation’ in Ukraine to disarm the country and protect it from Nazis.
According to Kuyun and a government source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Ukraine consumed roughly 2.4 million tonnes of gasoline and around 8 million tonnes of diesel in 2021.
According to Kuyun, the country imported 80 percent of its oil products before the war, with Russia and Belarus supplying 62 percent of its gasoline and 44 percent of its diesel.
According to military officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the loss of such sources can be compensated for with imports from European sources via the country’s enormous train system.
‘The situation with army gasoline is secure thanks to agreements reached at the highest levels. We are shipping practically everywhere, and the balance now appears to be in our favour ‘a military source said, declining to explain.
Dissemination of strategic intelligence was illegal in Ukraine during the war.
Russian assaults on petroleum facilities have prompted the government to disperse fuel reserves ‘to avert additional attacks,’ according to a government source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
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