Ukraine logistics strikes drain Russian fuel supply ahead of new missile

Ukrainian forces are systematically dismantling Russia’s military logistics and domestic fuel supply, destroying tanker trucks, railway bridges and oil refineries while Russian retaliatory strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure fall short. Over the weekend, Kyiv's forces targeted 27 Russian oil facilities, adding to a campaign that has left cities across Russia grappling with kilometre-long petrol queues.

Moscow has attempted to mirror Kyiv’s tactics by bombing frontline petrol stations and attacking railway hubs. Russian drones struck ten filling stations in the Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions on Sunday, while three trains were hit near the Malynivka and Lozova rail hub. However, a Russian attempt to destroy a bridge in Zaporizhzhia on 20 June missed entirely, with electronic jamming causing all five bombs to land dozens of metres from their target.

The resulting fuel crisis is creating a rare political vulnerability for the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin publicly acknowledged the shortages on Sunday, promising a rapid increase in air-defence production to protect refineries—a move that implicitly admitted a critical shortage in military hardware. “I’m really surprised the Kremlin has been unable to fix the fuel crisis in Moscow,” noted Russia expert Jaroslav Trofim. “But politically, only Moscow matters, and yet Russian social media are full of frustrated Muscovites.”

Fearing further deep strikes, Russia is repositioning S-400 air-defence systems to five new locations around the capital. Western sources and Russian military channels suggest the move anticipates the deployment of Ukraine’s newly developed FP-9 ballistic missile, which uses solid rocket fuel and is currently undergoing testing. “As soon as the test flights show that everything is working correctly, the next flight will be directed at Moscow,” said Denys Shtilerman, co-founder and designer at the company Fire Point.

For European security planners, the successful degradation of Russian logistics signals a prolonged war of attrition where Kyiv can increasingly project power deep behind enemy lines. While Ukraine lost two MiG-29 aircraft in a single day and continues to face heavy ground assaults, its ability to disrupt Russian supply chains suggests Moscow will struggle to sustain both its domestic economy and its military campaign without severe structural adjustments.