Gasoline prices across Russia have soared to record highs this week, as a wave of Ukrainian drone strikes targets the heart of Russia’s oil infrastructure, sending shockwaves through the country’s energy sector and daily life. According to The Moscow Times, the escalation in fuel shortages comes as long queues of cars and trucks snake around gas stations, not only in Russia’s heartland but also in the occupied territories of Ukraine, laying bare the growing strain on the Kremlin’s war economy.
Since early August 2025, Ukrainian long-range drone attacks have knocked out about 13 percent of Russia’s oil refining capacity, a staggering figure that’s left many Russians grappling with the consequences. These attacks, as reported by The Moscow Times and Kyiv Post, have coincided with peak seasonal demand, as summer travel and the crucial harvest season drive up fuel needs. The result? Skyrocketing prices and empty pumps, with some stations reportedly running out of gasoline altogether.
The Ukrainian campaign is anything but accidental. As Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, pointedly remarked, “Now they suddenly face shortages themselves. That’s what happens when you attack Ukrainians.” According to The Moscow Times, Yermak’s words reflect a sense of poetic justice felt by many Ukrainians, given Russia’s own efforts to deprive Ukraine of fuel earlier in the conflict. Yet, the strikes are about more than retribution—they’re a calculated attempt to cripple Russia’s ability to bankroll its invasion, with Kyiv viewing these drone attacks as a form of “direct sanctions” in the absence of tougher Western measures targeting Russian energy exports.
The most recent spate of attacks unfolded on the night of August 21, 2025. Ukrainian UAV pilots and ground crews launched a new round of nighttime drone strikes deep into Russian-held territory, targeting critical assets hundreds of kilometers behind the front lines. According to Kyiv Post, one of the most dramatic strikes involved 10 to 15 drones attacking a GRU military intelligence compound adjacent to a military airport in Sevastopol, Crimea—a site some 300 kilometers from the nearest likely Ukrainian launch points. The strike was confirmed by Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea’s occupation authority, who acknowledged “loud sounds” and a fire at the base, urging residents to remain calm as emergency responders rushed in.
Social media and satellite imagery gave further credence to the scale of the damage. NASA’s FIRMS satellite network detected a major fire covering about 2 square kilometers at the south end of the Sevastopol runway, with images showing office and storage buildings engulfed in flames. Russian air defenses reportedly scrambled to intercept drones over the Crimean cities of Feodosia and Dzhankoi, but the attacks still managed to inflict visible damage.
Meanwhile, on the Russian mainland, another Ukrainian drone swarm struck a major oil refinery near Novoshakhtinsk in the Rostov region—about 170 to 180 kilometers east of the fighting front. According to Kyiv Post, the Novoshakhtinsk refinery, which processes between 5 and 7.5 million tons of oil annually into various fuel products, was already a known target, having been previously attacked by Ukrainian drones in June 2022 and again earlier in August. The latest strike ignited multiple fires that, according to NASA satellite data, covered about 4 square kilometers, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the sky. Despite the deployment of Russian Pantsir and Tor air defense systems, the drones reportedly evaded interception.
The domino effect of these attacks has been swift and far-reaching. By mid-August, shortages and price spikes were being reported throughout Russia, with some cities witnessing gas stations running dry. The situation has only been exacerbated by the destruction of a pumping station for the Druzhba pipeline in Russia’s Tambov region on August 18—a key conduit carrying Russian oil to European markets, as reported by The Moscow Times. The cumulative effect of these strikes is a mounting crisis that’s hitting both Russia’s military logistics and its civilian economy.
Ukraine’s drone campaign doesn’t stop at oil infrastructure. On the same night as the refinery and GRU base attacks, a third strike targeted railroad power transmission infrastructure near Zhuravka village in Russia’s Voronezh region, damaging a transformer station and causing delays to 19 trains. According to Kyiv Post, this was the 17th Ukrainian drone attack on the Zhuravka station since the war began, underscoring a broader strategy to degrade Russian military transport capacity and disrupt civilian travel between central Russia and Black Sea resorts.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, in a statement cited by Kyiv Post, claimed its air defenses shot down 49 Ukrainian drones on the night of August 20-21, including 21 over Rostov, seven over Voronezh, and four over Crimea. While these numbers are difficult to independently verify, the visible aftermath—the fires, explosions, and infrastructure damage—suggests that a significant number of drones are still getting through.
Behind these headlines lies a deeper shift in the technological balance of the conflict. Ukraine’s capacity for long-range strikes has grown dramatically over the past three and a half years. Once limited to a handful of drones, Kyiv now boasts a burgeoning arsenal, including the recently unveiled domestically produced long-range cruise missile, the “Flamingo.” With a reported range of over 3,000 kilometers and a massive warhead, the Flamingo represents a new level of threat to Russian infrastructure. President Zelenskyy has confirmed that the missile has completed successful testing and is expected to enter mass production by year’s end, according to The Moscow Times.
This expansion in strike capability is no accident. Ukraine played a central role in the Soviet missile program, with the city of Dnipro—known as “Rocket City”—serving as a hub of Cold War-era innovation. Now, as Kyiv revives this tradition, it hopes to gain a trump card in any future negotiations with Moscow. Even with its current, still-limited arsenal, Ukraine has already demonstrated its ability to inflict serious damage on Russia’s energy sector. If mass production of long-range cruise missiles becomes a reality, the consequences for Russian refineries, ports, and pipelines could be devastating.
For the Kremlin, the challenge is daunting. Russia’s vast size, once considered a strategic advantage, has become a liability in the face of widespread drone attacks. As The Moscow Times notes, the country simply lacks enough air defense systems to protect thousands of potential targets spread across eleven time zones. The question now is whether Ukraine can produce drones and missiles in sufficient quantities to sustain—and escalate—this campaign.
As the conflict grinds on, with Russian forces making only marginal territorial gains in eastern Ukraine at great cost, the technological realities of the battlefield increasingly favor the defenders. Ukrainian policymakers hope that a combination of military stalemate and mounting attacks inside Russia will eventually force President Putin to reconsider his uncompromising stance and seek a negotiated settlement. Whether that hope materializes remains to be seen, but for now, the war’s front lines are as much in the skies above Russia’s heartland as they are on the ground in Ukraine.
The coming months may prove decisive, as both sides race to adapt to a new era of long-range, high-tech warfare—one where the balance of power can shift overnight, and where the cost of conflict is measured not just in territory, but in the daily realities of fuel shortages, economic disruption, and the ever-present specter of escalation.
