Amid the fuel shortage in Crimea, TES, the largest gas station chain on the annexed peninsula, announced the unavailability of its gas coupon service. “The coupon service is currently unavailable,”  the company’s website states . 

Meanwhile, ads for gasoline in Crimea for 200–350 rubles per liter have already appeared on Avito . For example, a user from Simferopol offered a can of AI-95 for 7,000 rubles (350 rubles per liter). Another seller listed 20 liters of the same grade for 5,000 rubles (250 rubles per liter). One post offered gasoline itself for 200 rubles per liter and a coupon for 20 liters of AI-95 for 4,000 rubles. 

The day before, Moscow-appointed “head” of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, announced that AI-95 gasoline would be sold in the region only with coupons, and AI-92 gasoline would be sold in quantities of no more than 20 liters per car. Refueling in canisters would also be prohibited. In annexed Sevastopol, “governor” Mikhail Razvozhaev also introduced coupons for gasoline, with quantities of no more than 20 liters. 

The fuel shortage is due to strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on logistics and oil refineries. Ukrainian medium-range drones have also effectively taken control of the federal highway R-280 “Novorossiya” (the “land bridge” from Rostov-on-Don to Crimea), which supplies the occupied Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, as well as Crimea.

According to Bloomberg , there were 16 attacks on Russian refineries in May—a record since the war began. According to Reuters calculations, by mid-May, refineries with a combined daily capacity of 238,000 tons—a quarter of Russia’s total— were shut down . Central Russia was particularly hard hit: refineries in Kirishi, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, and Yaroslavl (which produced over 30% of Russia’s gasoline) virtually ceased operations. 

(C)THE MOSCOW TIMES 2026