When her diabetic husband slipped into a coma, a woman in a village in the Zabaikalye region called for an ambulance. The dispatcher told her to find her own ride. The ambulance had no fuel.
The woman, who gave her name to RFE/RL as Viktoria, said she had been unable to give her husband the insulin he needed. “We’re out of gas,” she says she was told. “So, I walked 15 kilometers to the neighboring village so my husband’s friend could take him. They revived him, but it’s still unclear how a multi-hour coma will affect his condition.” Had it been a stroke, she said, “we definitely would have lost him.”
Her village lies near the Chinese border, roughly 6,300 kilometers from Ukraine. RFE/RL reported on June 30 that a Ukrainian drone campaign aimed at Russian fuel supplies is now reaching ordinary people there. Several of those interviewed asked to be identified only by pseudonyms for security reasons.
Lines, brawls and uncollected trash
In Chita, the capital of Zabaikalye, a line of drivers waiting to fill up ran 3 kilometers. Nikolai, a resident, said people wait 12 hours or more for 15 liters. Grigory, a salesman, said waits at one station north of the city were about three hours lately, and that a nearby argument turned into a full brawl. “Not only can you run out of fuel, you can also get beaten up,” he said. According to him, spots in a queue are being sold: 800 rubles (around $10) buys a place among the first 20 cars.
Regional authorities last week advised residents to limit their driving in and out of the region, and Chita’s mayor set daily limits for individual drivers.
On June 25, a regional waste management company suspended garbage collection in four districts because its trucks had no fuel. Yekaterina, who lives in Krasnokamensk, a small town not far from the Chinese border, said nothing had been picked up for a week. “Garbage is lying in the courtyards, rotting; there are rats, stray dogs,” she told RFE/RL. “Another month and we’ll die from the smell.”
Aleksei said his bus to a Chita suburb was canceled without notice and he had to sleep in the bus station. Fares have risen sharply.
Shortages far beyond Zabaikalye
In the Irkutsk region, standard-grade gasoline rose by nearly 10 percent in a week, according to a resident named Sergei. He said one day he stood 12 1/2 hours for 15 liters. The city’s mayor promised portable toilets at area gas stations.
In the Pacific region of Khabarovsk, Governor Dmitry Demeshin said about 40 percent of fueling stations are out of gas. A resident named Anatoly said villagers fought wildfires on their own, with no fire trenches dug and the equipment unable to arrive. “This is the first time I’ve heard ordinary working people, not just the intelligentsia, cursing the supreme leader,” he said.
By last week, more than 55 of Russia’s 83 regions and federally designated cities were reporting government-imposed restrictions or supply shortages. Crimea has had rolling blackouts. The Moscow region’s largest refined fuel supplier was hit twice by Ukrainian drones this month, and officials told Reuters it would be out of service for the rest of the year.
Putin and Zelenskyy respond
Vladimir Putin addressed the problem in televised meetings. “Of course, they’re creating problems, that’s obvious,” he told state TV on June 28. “Right now we’re observing some shortages, but it’s not critical.”
Dmitry Oreshkin, an exiled Russian political analyst, told RFE/RL’s Russian Service that Putin will say fuel is fine and people will calm down, but that most likely it will not hold, and “that’s when the main problems begin.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address on June 29 that Russians arguing in gas lines should think about what awaits them next if Putin keeps sending soldiers against what he called a wall.
