La lenta morte del petrolio russo

Recap: Ukraine’s Drone War Is Quietly Crippling Russia’s Oil Industry

Despite being an oil-rich nation, Russia is facing fuel shortages for the first time since the war began. Since August, Ukrainian drone strikes have hit over half of Russia’s 38 major refineries, cutting refinery output by nearly 10% and forcing some gas stations to ration fuel.

While these attacks won’t collapse Russia’s oil sector overnight, they’re creating long-term damage—eroding infrastructure, overloading repair capacity, and forcing Moscow into tighter state control and inefficient crisis management. Ukraine’s drone capabilities, now reaching deep into Siberia, are straining Russia’s defenses and logistics in a “death by a thousand cuts” strategy.

Russia’s response—export bans, subsidies, and price controls—keeps short-term stability but accelerates long-term decline. The war is turning Russia’s once-powerful energy industry into a brittle, overmanaged system—an apt reflection of its broader war economy.