Russia Moves to Shield Its Refineries with Billions in Subsidies Amid Ukrainian Drone Strikes
Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a multibillion-ruble bailout for the country’s oil refineries as Ukrainian drone attacks continue to disrupt fuel production and trigger shortages across dozens of regions.
The Gaze reports this, referring to Bloomberg.
According to the decree signed on October 11, Moscow will relax the rules for allocating fuel subsidies, allowing refineries to retain state support even if wholesale gasoline and diesel prices rise above government-set “threshold levels.” The new provisions will apply from October 1, 2025, through May 1, 2026.
Analysts note that the Kremlin’s decision aims to keep domestic fuel supplies stable despite increasingly lucrative export opportunities.
Previously, subsidies were paid only when market prices stayed within 10% of the threshold for gasoline and 20% for diesel.
In 2024, the Russian government spent 1.8 trillion rubles on refinery subsidies, but in the first nine months of 2025 that figure dropped to 716 billion rubles, reflecting the growing financial pressure of wartime economics.
Ukrainian long-range drone strikes have damaged several key refineries, deepening a fuel crisis that has already hit more than half of Russia’s regions.
At least 57 regions have reported fuel shortages or rationing, including the occupied Crimean peninsula, where gasoline sales are limited to 20 liters per vehicle.
Over August and September alone, roughly 360 gas stations were forced to close, meaning that about one in every fifty stations in Russia has stopped selling fuel.
Facing the escalating crisis, the Russian government has extended its ban on gasoline exports until the end of October in an effort to stabilize domestic supplies.
Analysts warn that the Kremlin’s lavish subsidies will do little to repair the structural damage inflicted by Ukrainian precision strikes and may instead further deplete Russia’s budget.
As The Gaze previously reported, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Oleksandr Syrskyi stated that in September, Ukrainian unmanned aerial systems (UAS) struck 66,5 thousand enemy targets.