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Petrol shortages and ‘oil rain’ bring Russia-Ukraine war home to Moscow

Petrol shortages and ‘oil rain’ bring Russia-Ukraine war home to Moscow

Months of Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure have led to widespread fuel rationing, with Russian President Vladimir Putin now unable to mask the war’s economic effects. The Russian petrol shortages come amid other good news for Ukraine, which during the past week garnered 4 billion euros ($4.6bn) in new military aid commitments from its allies for anti-ballistic interceptors, long-range artillery and unmanned systems. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine and Germany also signed an agreement to develop a European anti-ballistic interceptor missile – a longstanding desire of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The European Union, too, released 6 billion euros ($6.9bn) in military aid from its European Peace Facility and started talks that are expected to lead to Ukraine’s membership. Both developments had long been delayed by Hungarian premier Viktor Orban, who lost power in April. [Al Jazeera] After opening the first of six negotiation clusters with Brussels to join the EU, Zelenskyy urged the EU Intergovernmental Conference to move faster and open the remaining five simultaneously. “Ukraine has earned the right to move faster … We are ready to open all clusters. We have done our work. Everyone in Europe knows this,” he said. Rationing in Russia Russian independent news outlet The Bell reported rationing in 53 Russian regions and in occupied Ukraine on Wednesday. That rationing had reached the principal urban centres of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, where the Tatneft chain of petrol stations on Monday began limiting customers to 20 litres of petrol (5.3 gallons) and 40 litres of diesel at a time “for technical reasons”. Advertisement Other petrol chains, including Rosneft, placed upper limits of 90 litres per sale. (Al Jazeera) Rosneft and Bashneft, the state oil company of the Republic of Bashkortostan, on Tuesday reportedly banned sales of petrol in canisters due to “increased seasonal demand”. These reports came after unusually low oil production during May. The International Energy Agency reported that Russia produced 8.74 million barrels per day of oil last month, versus 8.96 million bpd in April, approximately 100,000 barrels below target. Russian oil producers have in the past few weeks announced production cuts following damage to infrastructure caused by Ukrainian strikes. Russia was reacting to the shortages by allowing some refineries to circulate under-refined petrol with a higher sulphur content, Russian business newspaper Kommersant reported. Reuters reported that Russia also planned to increase imports of refined petroleum products from Asia. Ukraine’s war on the Russian budget Kyiv gave its strikes added political import by striking the Moscow Oil Refinery twice during the week, on Tuesday and Thursday, sending black clouds of smoke into the Moscow skyline that residents reported caused “oil rain” and covered surfaces in black soot. “The company’s products account for over 38 percent of the capital region’s fuel consumption, including supplying aviation fuel to Domodedovo, Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, and Zhukovsky airports,” said the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukraine’s General Staff said one of the refinery’s primary processing units was damaged in the first strike, while the second caused five simultaneous fires, reportedly damaging a combined processing unit, a secondary processing unit and a tank farm. (Al Jazeera) The refinery was forced to halt operations. The pollution caused six airports around Moscow to shut down, cancelling flights. Days earlier, Putin had promised Russians that Ukrainian long-range strikes would be contained. “We will increase our strikes on the enemy’s infrastructure in such a way as to discourage them from attacking our civilian objects,” he had told a news conference. Ukraine did not say what means it used to strike the refinery in Moscow, which is one of Russia’s best-defended areas from aerial threats. Russia’s defence ministry said later on Thursday that it had downed 992 drones and four missiles over a 24-hour period. In the past week, Ukraine also struck the TANEKO refinery in the Republic of Tatarstan, one of Russia’s largest, which produces aviation fuel for the armed forces, and numerous tank farms, pumping stations and oil terminals. Advertisement As part of a campaign against weapons manufacturers, Ukraine on June 12 struck the Tolyattikauchuk chemical plant, which manufactures synthetic rubber used in solid rocket and missile fuel. Putin made a rare concession that Ukraine was succeeding in causing economic pain. “The blows of the Armed Forces of Ukraine damage the Russian economy … The enemy is increasing the use of aircraft-type UAVs in order to split Russian society and cause economic damage,” Putin said. “But everything is quickly recovering,” he added. “We understand that Putin is rarely provided with completely truthful information without embellishment,” said Zelenskyy. Not everyone in Moscow agreed with Putin. “We continue to face new prohibitions, restrictions and a growing financial burden,” wrote Duma (lower house) member Vyacheslav Markhaev on June 11. He associated the ineffectiveness of economic reforms that “remain on paper” with the ineffectiveness of Russia’s war in Ukraine. “Attacks on our cities do not stop, their geography is expanding.” A woman is treated for a wound at a site of an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on June 16, 2026 [Reuters] Russian officials have pointed out the financial strain of the war since the summer of 2025, leading to promises from the Kremlin to lower military expenditure in 2026. The opposite appears to be happening, however. Russia is increasing its defence budget despite falling tax revenues, said Janis Kluge, an economist and Russia expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Russian finance ministry data suggested that defence spending was up 30 percent in the first quarter, compared with the same period last year, Kluge said. Although defence spending was meant to fall from 7.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year to 6.2 percent this year, it was on track to reach 10 percent, he found. Falling government income meant that military spending has reached two-thirds of budget revenues, Kluge said. Russia’s financial situation could further

Cuba: Between charcoal and solar panels

Cuba: Between charcoal and solar panels

Several kilometres away, along Havana’s iconic Malecón waterfront, a different reality is taking shape. Under the midday heat, workers move large photovoltaic panels across the roof of the Fuego Lento restaurant overlooking the sea. Several floors below, customers eat lunch while technicians drill, bolt and connect the new installation. Josecal Duarte, one of the technicians overseeing the project, has witnessed demand surge. “More and more people are importing solar panels and batteries. They’re buying them for their businesses, for their homes, to survive.” A 615-watt solar panel costs about $160 before transport and installation. Most homes and businesses require several panels, along with lithium battery systems capable of storing electricity generated during the day. Inside the restaurant, owner Aris Lopez Torres says she spent years searching for ways to keep her business afloat. First came a generator, then lithium batteries, but rising fuel prices and increasingly frequent blackouts quickly exposed the limits of both options. “It was either this or close the restaurant,” she says. “Without electricity, we can’t do anything.” The photovoltaic installation will not cover all of the restaurant’s needs, but it allows essential equipment to keep operating. “The refrigerators are the priority,” she explains. “We’re only using one air conditioner out of three now. It’s survival economics because the situation is very serious.” Across the capital, solar installation companies and battery retailers are struggling to keep up with demand. “Demand keeps growing,” says Mario Perdomo, who works for MIDICAS, a company that installs solar systems throughout Cuba. “People want to be prepared when the power goes out,” adds Elizabeth Diego, a saleswoman in central Havana. For a large part of the Cuban population, however, these technologies remain out of reach. Adblock test (Why?)

‘Destruction is the goal’: Israel steers between the US, Iran, and Lebanon

‘Destruction is the goal’: Israel steers between the US, Iran, and Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has restrained himself from openly displaying his opposition to the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States. But looking to the positions of Israelis from across the political spectrum, and the military’s actions in Lebanon, the picture is clear: Israel is angry, and Israel is worried. Netanyahu has always been careful with US President Donald Trump, knowing that his occasional criticisms of Israeli policy have been coupled with allowing Israel to pursue many of its military and political goals, even as the rest of the world isolates the country. The war with Iran was a case in point – after years of US refusal, Netanyahu had finally convinced a US president to jointly attack Iran. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list But that war has gone badly for the US, and Trump’s decision to accept a deal – without any apparent input from Israel – has upended many of the assumptions underpinning what many in Israel see as their “special relationship” with the US, as well as making clear the power dynamics between the two allies. Under the terms of the US-Iran agreement, as well as creating a $300bn reconstruction plan for Iran, the US commits that it and “its allies” will undertake the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon”. Israel immediately responded to that agreement by pounding Lebanon, killing at least 47 people on Friday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. Four Israeli soldiers were also killed overnight by the armed Lebanese group, Hezbollah, prompting Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to say that “all of Lebanon must burn”. Advertisement And yet, by Friday evening, a ceasefire is reported to have been agreed between Israel and Hezbollah – likely after US pressure, with the US-Iran deal at risk of collapsing. Rock and a hard place How far Netanyahu can go in his defiance of the US, whose diplomatic and financial support are critical to Israel, and how far he can go in appeasing an Israeli public and political establishment widely understood to reject the deal, is unclear. According to a television poll published on Thursday, only a small minority of Israelis believe their country has won the war against Iran – an opponent that, for generations, they had been told was bent on their destruction. “The depth of disappointment over the US-Iran memorandum of understanding is very real and deep,” Israeli pollster and political analyst Dahlia Scheindlin said. “Israelis are fully aware that none of their goals as articulated and overconfidently promised by Netanyahu have been achieved. They believe the war ended prematurely and that something went wrong with the grand plan. They don’t love blaming Trump but see him as making decisions based on US interests, and many blame Netanyahu for miscalculations in creating the dependency on Trump.” US Vice President JD Vance stepped into the fray on Thursday, addressing Israel and the deal’s critics in its cabinet directly. “Donald J Trump is the only head of state in the entire world who is sympathetic to the nation of Israel at this moment in time,” Vance said, referring to the international condemnation that has followed Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and multiple attacks on its neighbours. Vance continued, appearing to turn to Ben-Gvir and his fellow far-right figure, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” Vance said. US Vice President JD Vance has addressed criticism of the memorandum of understanding in Israel. The Trump administration is facing criticism for the deal, which opponents say is in Tehran’s favour. [Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA] “I can’t think of a time when either a US vice president or president has been so openly critical of Israel and used such language,” Chatham House’s Yossi Mekelberg said, referencing direct criticism of both Netanyahu and Israel’s attacks on Lebanon voiced by Trump during the G7 meeting on Wednesday. “Netanyahu understands he can’t afford a real rift with the US, but at least needs the appearance of one for his position to be sustainable,” he added. “It’s hard to see any way out for Netanyahu ahead of the elections, other than playing for time and leaving it until after the vote. Even if he halts action against Hezbollah tomorrow, could he rely upon them not attacking the north of Israel when they know how vulnerable he is?” Advertisement To that end, the degree to which Smotrich and Ben-Gvir were breaking with the prime minister in their criticism of the US-Iran deal, and how much they were reflecting his policy, was unclear, Ofer Cassif, an Israeli parliamentarian from the left-wing Hadash party, said. Netanyahu has been making political capital out of the threat posed by Iran since the 1990s, when he first claimed the country was on the brink of making a nuclear weapon, and Hezbollah, whose rocket fire on northern Israel in the wake of the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023, went a long way in deflecting from his own failures before that incursion. “All Netanyahu and his thugs, this so-called government, are interested in, is thwarting, hindering and destroying the agreement while seeming as if they were not, by selling a story of security and defence. That’s the real issue here,” Cassif said. “Destruction is the goal.” Adblock test (Why?)