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(Bloomberg) — Ukraine said it hit 12 more tankers in southern Russia as Kyiv expands the scope of attacks that are deepening a nationwide gasoline shortage.
The overnight strikes in the Sea of Azov targeted vessels used to supply fuel to the Russian army, as well as to skirt sanctions on transporting the country's crude and petroleum products, Ukraine's General Staff said in a Telegram statement. A tugboat and a dry cargo ship were also hit, according to the statement.
Bloomberg couldn't independently verify the number of hit vessels.
Earlier, the governor of the Rostov region on Russia's Sea of Azov coast, Yury Slyusar, said two tankers were struck in Taganrog Bay and suffered "mechanical damage." Both caught fire but the blaze on one had already been extinguished, he said on Telegram, without naming the vessels.
Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure in recent weeks. Apart from tankers, drones have targeted oil refineries and fuel depots in an effort to curb the country's oil-product supplies and pressure the Kremlin into negotiations.
The assaults have shut down several major refineries, leading to a gasoline shortage across Russia. The government has now banned almost all gasoline, jet fuel and diesel exports to keep more supplies at home.
Earlier this week, Kyiv's forces launched multiple strikes against small tankers in the Sea of Azov that were heading toward Crimea, in a bid to choke off fuel supplies to the Russian-occupied peninsula. Several vessels in the Black Sea were also attacked, according to Ukrainian officials.
So far this week, Ukraine has hit 25 tankers in total, with two of them struck twice, Robert Brovdi, Ukraine's commander of unmanned forces, said in a Telegram statement on Thursday.
Gasoline shortages have been particularly acute in southern Russia and occupied Ukrainian territories, where delivery logistics are more complicated. But the fuel crunch is worsening across Russia, with several regional governors requesting federal assistance at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Igor Artamonov, governor of the Lipetsk region — some 300 miles from Moscow — appealed to oil companies Lukoil PJSC, Rosneft PJSC and Gazprom Neft PJSC to urgently increase gasoline supplies.
"It's not just about motorists' convenience," Artamonov said in a statement. "It's about the normal functioning of the region, the work of emergency services, the harvesting campaign, food delivery, public safety and national priorities."
(Updates with statements from Ukraine in first, second and eighth paragraphs.)
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