The number of affected regions has increased significantly in less than a week. On June 4, fuel shortages and restrictions had been reported in 15 Russian regions, while similar measures were also in place in six temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories: Crimea, Sevastopol, and the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions. A key factor behind the growing fuel deficit is a relentless wave of attacks on Russian oil refineries, which were hit 38 times between January and May 2026. Sixteen of those strikes occurred in May alone, the highest monthly total since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Data from OilX shows refinery utilization has fallen by 14% since the beginning of the year and remains approximately 20% below pre-war levels.
