Drivers in Russian-controlled Crimea grapple with gasoline shortages

(Corrects dateline)

SEVASTOPOL, Crimea, June 1 (Reuters) – Drivers in Russian-controlled Crimea were grappling with gasoline rationing on Monday after Ukrainian drone attacks constricted road supplies across south-eastern Ukraine, Reuters witnesses and officials said.

More than four years since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia is facing almost daily Ukrainian attacks on its oil infrastructure while Western sanctions have made crude exports more costly. 

Moscow-backed Crimea governor, Sergei Aksyonov, said limits had been imposed on sales of the most commonly used gasoline, Ai-95, and that people would have to use fuel coupons for purchases.

In Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea and the traditional base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Reuters witnesses reported long queues at filling stations.

“I haven’t been able to fill up for two days now,” resident Oksana Senchenko told Reuters. 

“Yesterday there was no gasoline, and today I’m driving around town and there’s no gasoline, neither 92 nor 95,” she said.

Russia took control of Crimea in 2014 after Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted during protests in February 2014. After Crimea voted in a disputed referendum to become part of Russia, Moscow formally annexed Crimea.

Crimea, which juts out into the Black Sea off southern Ukraine, was absorbed into the Russian Empire along with most Ukrainian territory by Catherine the Great in the 18th century.

It became part of Russia within the Soviet Union until 1954, when it was handed to Ukraine, also then a Soviet republic, by Stalin’s successor Nikita Khrushchev.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has ruled out ceding territory occupied by Russian forces and has said Ukrainian sovereignty of Crimea must be restored. 

The Russian government said on Monday it had banned aviation fuel exports until November 30.

FUEL PROBLEMS 

Former Ukrainian lawmaker Oleg Tsaryov, a pro-Russian figure, said that the road that connects Crimea to the mainland in the north had been attacked by Ukraine.

“Fuel in Crimea is being sold in limited quantities and via rationing coupons. The reason is Ukrainian drone attacks on fuel trucks on the ‘Novorossiya’ highway – a land corridor linking mainland Russia and Crimea,” Tsaryov said.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-backed governor of Sevastopol, called for calm and urged people not to panic.

“The current difficulties are linked to the need to strengthen security measures and optimise the logistics routes used to deliver fuel to our city. These are temporary but objective challenges that we will overcome,” he said.

Fuel filling stations in some other parts of Russia, including Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, have also introduced restrictions on sales, Reuters witnesses said.      

(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Alex Richardson)