Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly acknowledged Sunday that his country is running short of fuel after a sustained Ukrainian drone campaign against Russian oil refineries, the first time the Kremlin leader has detailed the damage to the country's energy infrastructure since Kyiv began its deep-strike push this spring. Putin told a state TV reporter that Russia would import more fuel and accelerate refinery repairs to end what he called a "temporary deficit," and told a meeting of government ministers later in the day that a full ban on diesel exports was under consideration.
The admission, paired with reports that Ukrainian forces hit two more refineries Sunday and that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko quietly shut down Russian drone relay stations on his territory last week, marks the clearest sign yet that the four-year war is squeezing Moscow's home front. The Russian central bank's deputy governor warned Monday that the fuel disruption would shave growth from a 2026 forecast that already projects expansion of just 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent.
What Putin said
"All damaged facilities are being restored quite quickly, and the issues that arise are not critical," Putin said in the televised interview, according to The Associated Press. Speaking earlier Sunday to a United Russia party congress, he hinted at the damage without naming the strike campaign: "Yes, we see and realise our problems – we also respond to them." He pledged to expand air defenses against Ukraine's mid- and long-range drones and said Russia would "certainly handle all the challenges we are facing today, including terrorist attacks on our territory and our infrastructure." Putin also noted the queues at petrol stations during the meeting with ministers.
Researchers at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said the Russian leader was trying to "promote a facade of stability" even as fuel lines spread. "Putin did not explicitly discuss Ukraine's strike campaign against Russia or the wide-scale gasoline shortages experienced across the entire country, but Putin is likely subtly trying to portray himself as cognizant of the economic and social struggles Russia is facing," the analysts wrote.
Two more refineries
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday on Telegram that Ukrainian forces had struck a refinery in the Krasnodar region, about 186 miles from the front line, and a second facility in the Yaroslavl region, roughly 435 miles from the Ukrainian border. "Each of our long-range sanctions is a reduction in the resources working for the Russian war machine, and another step towards peace," Zelenskyy wrote, according to a translation cited by CNBC. Yaroslavl Governor Mikhail Evraev said a drone alert had been issued and that traffic on the road from Yaroslavl toward Moscow was briefly closed.
The Sunday strikes followed an explosion earlier in the month at Gazprom's Moscow Refinery and extended a campaign that, Al Jazeera reported, has produced petrol shortages in every Russian region. Zelenskyy on Thursday signed off on a 40-day operation aimed at pressuring the Kremlin to negotiate.
Belarus blinks
The drone war's reach now extends into Belarus. Al Jazeera reported Sunday that Lukashenko by Thursday had quietly shut down four Moscow-installed cellular relay stations that helped guide Russian drones into western Ukraine, after Zelenskyy gave him a one-week ultimatum on June 19. "I think one week will be enough," Zelenskyy said. "If he doesn't do that, we will."
Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus since 1994, framed the shutdown to state media as peacemaking while insisting his loyalty to Moscow was unchanged. "Our position is about peace. But in any situation, we will be next to Russia," he said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the Ukrainian ultimatum "absolutely aggressive" and said Putin would discuss it with Lukashenko, who travelled to Moscow on Wednesday.
The counterpoint
Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Kyiv-based Penta think tank, told Al Jazeera that Lukashenko's quiet retreat over the relay towers had shifted the balance between Kyiv and Minsk. Russia, he said, "undoubtedly saw it as a manifestation of Lukashenko's weakness," but lacked the military resources to backstop its ally. "What's significant is that now Ukraine acts from the position of power and Lukashenko has to reckon with it," Fesenko said. The Kremlin has not commented on the shutdown of the relay towers, and Russian authorities issued no immediate confirmation of damage from Sunday's refinery strikes.
Ukraine's recent headlines have been dominated by the U.S.-Iran exchange in the Strait of Hormuz and the resulting oil-price round trip; the Russia front had receded from view. Putin's admission, and the Belarus reversal, push it back to the center. The next test is whether Moscow imposes the diesel export ban Putin floated Sunday, a step that would ripple through fuel markets from Minsk to Central Asia.