Forbes: Russians Panicked By Ukrainian Attacks On Refineries

Conspiracy theories are spreading.

More and more Russians are finding it difficult to find gasoline. In many regions, sales are limited to 20 liters per customer. It is reported that one regional chain now sells gasoline only to commercial customers with fleet fuel cards. In addition, gas stations have banned customers from filling jerry cans, Forbes reported.

Many gas stations in occupied Crimea are now closed, and those that are still open sell only diesel fuel. In the Nizhny Novgorod region, school buses cannot pick up children due to fuel shortages, with regional authorities denying any disruptions.

"New batches of gasoline will arrive in the coming days, which will be enough to meet the needs of the population until October 12," said the head of Vanino district (Khabarovsk Krai), Alexei Maslov. He said the problem was caused by "ten days of scheduled repairs at oil refineries."

Military historian Chris_O quotes Dmitry Steshin, who is skeptical of the Russian Air Force's claims that it always shoots down 100 percent of attacking drones. The Air Force invariably attributes all damage to the "falling debris" of downed drones.

"Two shells do not fall into the same funnel, but drones do," Steshin wryly remarks.

Z-channel "Two Majors" argues that the problem of drone attacks will not be solved until there is a single agency responsible for countering them, as currently the Air Force, army units, air defense and local authorities are all to blame.

Some Russian blogs cite a popular conspiracy theory that refinery owners are deliberately allowing their facilities to be blown up in order to cut supplies and raise prices.

"That's why we see such embarrassing videos of a slow-flying drone approaching and attacking another refinery in broad daylight, meeting no resistance," the Z-bloggers write.

The problem may be simpler. Russia is not shooting down Ukrainian drones because it is running out of surface-to-air missiles.

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