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While Russians Queue for Gas, Moscow Pours Hundreds of Thousands of Liters Into Shaheds
Russia’s fuel crisis has reached the pump, but not the launch pad: while drivers wait in kilometer-long gas lines, Moscow is still pouring hundreds of thousands of liters into Shahed-type drones launched at Ukraine.
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
Russia is facing kilometer-long gas station lines across the country, but its war machine is still burning through hundreds of thousands of liters of gasoline to fuel Shahed-type attack drones used against Ukraine, Defense Express reported on June 26.
The fuel shortages follow systematic Ukrainian strikes on Russian fuel infrastructure and the disruption of logistics routes to temporarily occupied Crimea, which triggered further pressure across Russia’s fuel supply chain.
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According to Defense Express, the situation has already produced a bitter joke inside Russia: if civilians started taking fuel from the military’s Shaheds, the fuel crisis might suddenly look less severe.
While it is impossible to estimate how much fuel Russia uses for the full production and logistics chain behind its drone campaign, Defense Express noted that it is possible to estimate how much gasoline is used simply to fill the drones before launch.
Ukrainians remind the Russian fascists that their Shahed drones are full of gasoline. pic.twitter.com/0rpqONXKsO
— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) June 25, 2026
In May, Russia launched 8,150 long-range drones of all types, according to Ukrainian Air Force reports. Based on the known ratio cited by Defense Express, around 60% of them were Shahed-type Geran-2 drones of different versions—roughly 4,900 drones.
The Geran-2 has two fuel tanks. The version with a 50-kilogram warhead carries about 135 liters of fuel, while the version with a 90-kilogram warhead carries around 75 liters. Since the exact proportion between the two versions is unknown, Defense Express used an average estimate of 105 liters per Shahed-type drone.
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That means Russia used roughly 513,000 liters of gasoline in May just to fuel Shahed-type drones. If the estimated fuel used by Gerbera-type decoy drones is added, the figure rises by another 32,000 liters.
In total, Defense Express estimates that Russia used about 545,000 liters of gasoline in May for long-range attack drones and decoys alone.
The June numbers are also significant. In the first 26 days of the month, Russia launched 5,216 long-range drones of all types against Ukraine. Using the same estimated ratio, around 3,100 of them were Shahed-type Geran-2 drones.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine for the first time began to track and destroy pickup trucks with drones, from which the Russian Federation launches "shaheeds" over Ukraine
— big ben (@alternative_war) June 25, 2026
In the footage - the car that launched the shaheed over Ukraine was discovered and destroyed at the Donetsk…
That would equal roughly 329,000 liters of gasoline for Shaheds and another 21,000 liters for Gerbera decoys—around 350,000 liters in less than a full month, according to Defense Express.
On June 22, six regions—Omsk, Irkutsk, Saratov, Voronezh, Amur, and Tambov—imposed emergency caps to curb panic buying, with Saratov restricting individuals to 30 liters of gasoline from June 23 to June 30 and Irkutsk allowing some stations to halt sales entirely to prioritize emergency services.
Later, Russia imposed fuel-sale restrictions in its main oil-producing region and three other regions, Kursk, Bryansk, and Kurgan.
Latest reports by Russian media Astra indicate that one more Russian region, Tomsk, has started to impose restrictions on fuel sales.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Presidential Administration instructed state-aligned and pro-government outlets to downplay the country’s worsening fuel shortage and present the leadership as firmly in control.
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-72b63a4e0c8c475ad81fe3eed3f63729.jpeg "Photo of Cyril Barabaltchouk")
