Ukraine’s drone attacks have left Russia desperately scrambling for oil imports

The once world-leading producer of crude oil has plunged into an energy crisis as Kyiv targets its refineries

A sanctioned shadow fleet tanker carries oil from Nato member Turkey to a Russian Baltic port. A deal is signed for Russian oil to be processed in Kazakhstan. Fuel cargoes arrive from India via Egypt. The Kremlin pressures allies to sell it badly needed fuel.

The data points may be diverse, but they point to a single inescapable conclusion.

In the space of a summer, Russia, once the world’s second-largest producer of crude oil , has been plunged into a desperate scramble to find sources of gasoline to plug the ever-growing holes in its refining capacity.

The Kremlin has tapped into a widening number of sources in recent weeks to alleviate an energy crisis that has led to rationing at filling stations, as long-range drone attacks from Ukraine target the oil processing plants that usually supply them.

For the first time, Russia this week bought a shipment of 200,000 barrels of gasoline from Turkey, which are being shipped from Mersin to the Baltic port of Primorsk via a sanctioned tanker, the Wendrix. It is the fifth confirmed seaborne delivery of vehicle fuel this summer, after previous shipments via Egypt from a refinery at Vadinar in India, amounting to 1m barrels in total.

Russia has also signed a deal with the Kondensat oil refinery in western Kazakhstan this week to process Russian crude outside the country, which would see 70% of the refined fuel shipped back to Russia. Oil will need to be delivered to the refinery by rail as the facility is not connected to a Russian pipeline, according to reports.

This summer has also seen big increases in the amount of fuel Russia imports from its Ukraine war ally Belarus. Imports this June increased by a staggering factor of 141 compared with June last year.

Kremlin officials had expressed hope earlier in the summer that Russia might be turning a corner in its fuel crisis, but instead August has seen a new intensification. At least six Russian regions have reinstated or tightened restrictions on gasoline sales and a new wave of Ukrainian strikes on oil processing facilities completely shut down the Orsk refinery .

Russia’s deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, who in ​July had said Russia would begin importing oil products to help stabilise the domestic market, this week described the country’s energy situation as “constantly changing” as he said some refineries were back in operation.

“The situation is changing every day. We’re constantly monitoring it and are making decisions at our headquarters.