Welcome to Views From Above, a newsletter bringing you satellite imagery snapshots of world events. Today, we are looking at fuel lines in Russia as Ukrainian strikes and sanctions strain the country’s supplies.
The tempo of Ukraine’s strikes on Russia’s fuel facilities has accelerated in 2026, with waves of drones and missiles targeting the country’s energy infrastructure on a regular basis. Russia’s capacity to refine oil has taken a hit as a result, and the effects are coming home to ordinary Russians at the pump. New satellite imagery of Moscow shows lines for fuel at several gas stations, and photos from the ground capture similar queues in other major Russian cities. This latest shortage is not the first since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but its spread to the country’s capital demonstrates the strain Kyiv’s strikes have placed on fuel infrastructure.
In an effort to curb shortages, Russia has banned the export of diesel fuel and gasoline, while importing fuel from countries like Belarus, Kazakhstan, and India. Several regions of Russia are imposing limits on how much can be purchased, and the government has rolled back some fuel quality standards to make more available. But these measures are struggling to close the gap. Russians in at least a dozen regions of the country have reported hours-long wait times for fuel, and Ukrainian attacks on infrastructure continue. Ukrainian drone strikes in the Black Sea have also hindered Russia’s ability to export crude oil by targeting oil terminals and tankers in Moscow’s shadow fleet of ships.
In some cases, the damage from Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries can put them out of operation for months, in part due to Russia’s need to import many replacement components. As Ukraine’s long-range strike capabilities grow, more Russians could find themselves experiencing the impacts of the war directly. These fuel shortages have coincided with Ukraine’s strikes on Russian commercial warehouses, and Kyiv’s campaign on Russia’s war economy shows no signs of slowing down.
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