Breaking
ESCatastrophic floods in Nepal after the Bhote Koshi River overflowsAUMorning Mail: Nepal-Tibet flood disaster, Meta settlement, and news headlinesGLOBALCIA Director Travels to Moscow for Unannounced TalksGLOBALFire at Islamabad maternity ward kills 14 infantsINTLDolly Parton, legendary country singer and philanthropist, dies at 80TRUEFA Champions League league phase draw takes place in MonacoITEarthquake in Tibet: Xi Jinping orders immediate rescue operationsCNUS Launches 'Economic Offensive' Against Iran: Will New Sanctions Be Effective?EUCanada unveils counter-tariffs on US goods amid escalating trade warARNVIDIA’s Quarterly Results: A Crucial Test for the Sustainability of the AI BoomESCatastrophic floods in Nepal after the Bhote Koshi River overflowsAUMorning Mail: Nepal-Tibet flood disaster, Meta settlement, and news headlinesGLOBALCIA Director Travels to Moscow for Unannounced TalksGLOBALFire at Islamabad maternity ward kills 14 infantsINTLDolly Parton, legendary country singer and philanthropist, dies at 80TRUEFA Champions League league phase draw takes place in MonacoITEarthquake in Tibet: Xi Jinping orders immediate rescue operationsCNUS Launches 'Economic Offensive' Against Iran: Will New Sanctions Be Effective?EUCanada unveils counter-tariffs on US goods amid escalating trade warARNVIDIA’s Quarterly Results: A Crucial Test for the Sustainability of the AI Boom
NewsgatherNewsgather
All StoriesWorldSportsFinanceTechScience
Sign In
All StoriesWorldSportsFinanceTechScienceHealthCultureClimatePoliticsSpace
NewsgatherNewsgather

Real-time global news intelligence. Curated by humans, powered by data.

Sections

All StoriesWorldSportsFinanceTechScience

More

HealthCultureClimatePoliticsSpace

Company

AboutEditorial StandardsAdvertisingCareersPressContact

©️ 2026 Newsgather. A product by All Software 24. All rights reserved.

Privacy PolicyCookie PolicyImprintTerms of UseContent and Editorial PolicyRemoval RequestAdvertising PolicyContact
Back|Russian drone strikes target Ukrainian petrol stations
Russian drone strikes target Ukrainian petrol stations
World
BBC World·2 hours ago·World·4 min read

Russian drone strikes target Ukrainian petrol stations

Authorities urge drivers to minimize time at fuel stations as Russia intensifies attacks on civilian infrastructure.

Quick Look

  • Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian petrol stations have surged, with at least 246 sites hit.
  • Authorities are urging motorists to fill up quickly and avoid lingering, while businesses implement safety measures like anti-drone nets and concrete shelters.

AI-generated summary

Why It Matters

Russia has targeted Ukrainian fuel infrastructure since April. Ukraine has simultaneously targeted Russian oil refineries, causing fuel shortages within Russia.

Font size

"Fill up quickly and move on," Mayor Ihor Terekhov warns drivers in Ukraine's second largest city Kharkiv.

Two petrol stations in the city in Ukraine's north-east were hit by Russian drones on Monday, which local officials say wounded two people. In another attack on a petrol station outside the city of Kryvyi Rih last week, three people were killed.

Russia's campaign of targeting civilian filling stations with drones and missiles began in earnest in April, primarily in regions on the front line, and the attacks are steadily growing more frequent.

At the same time, Russia has endured two waves of severe fuel shortages across the country as a result of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries.

In total, Russia has hit at least 246 filling stations across Ukraine so far, says Oleksandr Sirenko, an analyst with Ukrainian energy think-tank Nafto Rynok ("Oil Market").

In July alone, the Centre for Information Resilience, an open-source investigation non-profit group, verified 114 Russian strikes on filling stations, compared with 66 the month before.

Given the threat, police have issued special guidance urging motorists to leave petrol stations and, if necessary, to abandon their vehicles whenever air raid alerts sound.

"You can fix your car, but you won't get your life back," says one police force in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

The damage is highly disruptive and puts civilians at considerable risk.

According to Sirenko, initially the attacks were being carried out with smaller, remote-controlled drones, but then Russia started using bigger, more expensive and more destructive Iranian-made Shahed drones.

One Shahed drone is estimated to cost between $20,000 (£14,500) and $50,000 (£36,000).

"One petrol station took five Shahed hits," Sirenko tells the BBC. "These Shaheds cost more than the petrol station."

Some key roads have no functioning petrol stations left, such as the road linking the two major cities of Kharkiv and Dnipro.

All the petrol stations have been destroyed around Opishnya, a large village in neighbouring Poltava region.

"You can see our enemy's strategy. They want to deprive us of fuel," says village chief Mykola Riznyk. In a video on Facebook, he says local authorities have begun stocking up on fuel, keeping small amounts of it in different locations.

In Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, local resident and driver Kateryna Stokolya says petrol stations everywhere are becoming far stricter about not working during air alerts.

"Now everyone's making allowances for that, and it's not a problem," she tells the BBC. "Security comes first. If you can't fill up now, you'll fill up later. There are no queues or panic buying."

Stokolya believes that, in carrying out attacks of this nature, Russia's intended goal is "terrorising the public so we force the government to capitulate or accept agreements that do not favour Ukraine".

In Ukrainian-controlled areas of the partly occupied Kherson region, almost half the petrol stations have stopped working. The others get attacked by Russian drones "almost every day", says deputy regional administration head Oleksandr Tolokonnikov.

All petrol stations have reportedly been destroyed in Trostyanets, a town of almost 20,000 people near the north-eastern border with Russia. In response, local authorities started dispensing fuel straight from road tankers which keep changing their location to minimise the chances of being hit.

Ukrainians appear to be heeding the advice of authorities.

"Clients aren't browsing the aisles anymore, looking at what we've got on our shelves," says Oleksandr Melnychuk, head of the strategic marketing department at BRSM Nafta chain of petrol stations. "They fill up and are keen to get on their way as soon as possible."

His company has lost eight petrol stations and is rebuilding another two after they were hit.

To protect customers, BRSM Nafta has been building concrete shelters at its forecourts and also covering them in anti-drone nets. It has also shortened working hours and reduced the number of staff present in some locations.

However, so far the drone strikes have not had a dramatic impact on fuel supplies. According to a report by the National Bank of Ukraine, 4% of the country's filling stations have been damaged or destroyed, but the impact on the market has been small.

"Increasing sales in regions which are further away from the front line or from the border with Russia have made up for sales lost at destroyed stations," the report says.

The picture in Russia is very different, after Ukraine's campaign of attacks on Russian refineries and other infrastructure.

Russia has seen fuel shortages in almost every region as a result. One popular newspaper in Russia, Izvestia, said last week that petrol was only available at 28% of Russian filling stations.

Unlike in Russia, Ukraine does not rely on vulnerable large refineries and fuel depots, instead importing fuel by road using tanker trucks.

Ukraine's market is also saturated with numerous petrol stations, which usually offer drivers alternatives should one or several of them be targeted in a particular area, Sirenko says.

"You curse and drive on to another petrol station. OK, you travel for 10km more than you bargained for, but that's not such a big problem," he says.

If anything, it is the war between the US and Iran that is having a bigger impact on local fuel prices, he says. Normally, the most expensive parts of filling stations are left undamaged by Russian attacks, such as petrol and diesel tanks underground.

Open Questions

  • ?Will Russia increase the frequency of Shahed drone usage?
  • ?Can Ukraine sustain fuel imports if more infrastructure is destroyed?

Related Topics

People
Organizations
Places
Topics
This article was originally published by BBC World.

Quick Look

  • Russian drone strikes on Ukrainian petrol stations have surged, with at least 246 sites hit.
  • Authorities are urging motorists to fill up quickly and avoid lingering, while businesses implement safety measures like anti-drone nets and concrete shelters.

AI-generated summary

Story signals

News tone
Sensitive
Emotional intensity
High
News value
Moderate
Follow-up likelihood
Likely
Relevance window
Days

Source & Reliability

Source
BBC World
Story type
Hard news
Source quality
Full
Published
2 hours ago
Last updated
2 hours ago

Related Stories

More on this topic
Inundaciones catastróficas en Nepal tras desbordamiento del río Bhote Koshi
BREAKING·2 hours ago

Inundaciones catastróficas en Nepal tras desbordamiento del río Bhote Koshi

Fuertes inundaciones causadas por la crecida del río Bhote Koshi en el distrito de Rasuwa, Nepal, han dejado al menos 98 muertos y casi mil desaparecidos. El desastre, que afectó infraestructuras y viviendas, habría sido provocado por un terremoto en la frontera tibetana.

20minutos
1 min read
Morning Mail: Nepal-Tibet flood disaster, Meta settlement, and news headlines
BREAKING·2 hours ago

Morning Mail: Nepal-Tibet flood disaster, Meta settlement, and news headlines

Over 150 people died and hundreds are missing following flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border. Meta reached an $18bn settlement over child safety, and Tim Curry has died at 80. Australian news includes Icac hearings and local datacentre controversies.

Guardian Australia
4 min read
Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive in the UK
World·12 hours ago

Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive in the UK

Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have returned to the UK from California with their children, Archie and Lilibet. The family plans to reside at a private property in the Cotswolds as non-working royals.

BBC UK News
1 min read
Frana in Tibet: Xi Jinping ordina soccorsi immediati
BREAKING·14 hours ago

Frana in Tibet: Xi Jinping ordina soccorsi immediati

Una frana nella contea di Gyirong, in Tibet, ha causato dispersi e gravi danni. Il presidente Xi Jinping e il premier Li Qiang hanno ordinato operazioni di soccorso immediate, con il vicepremier Zhang Guoqing inviato sul posto per coordinare l'emergenza.

ANSA Mondo
1 min read
US Navy clears mines in Strait of Hormuz as Iran-Oman propose temporary corridor
BREAKING·14 hours ago

US Navy clears mines in Strait of Hormuz as Iran-Oman propose temporary corridor

President Trump announced the US Navy has cleared mines from the Strait of Hormuz, warning Iran against further mining. Meanwhile, Iran and Oman are negotiating a temporary shipping corridor, even as new US sanctions threaten to isolate Tehran's financial partners.

BBC World
4 min read
Gazze'deki Sağlık Bakanlığı İsrail saldırılarındaki güncel can kaybı verilerini açıkladı
World·14 hours ago

Gazze'deki Sağlık Bakanlığı İsrail saldırılarındaki güncel can kaybı verilerini açıkladı

Gazze'deki Sağlık Bakanlığı, Ekim 2023'ten bu yana devam eden İsrail saldırılarında toplam can kaybının 73 bin 438'e, yaralı sayısının ise 174 bin 447'ye ulaştığını açıkladı.

AA Dünya
1 min read
More on this topic
ukraine
russia
drone strikes
ukraine
Ihor Terekhov
Oleksandr Sirenko
Mykola Riznyk
Kateryna Stokolya
Nafto Rynok
Centre for Information Resilience
BRSM Nafta
National Bank of Ukraine
Kharkiv
Kryvyi Rih
Dnipropetrovsk
Opishnya
russia
drone strikes
petrol stations
energy infrastructure
civilian safety
ukraine
ukraine