How has the power shortage in Russia increased due to the strike in Ukraine? | | News of the Russia-Ukraine war

Ukrainian drone attack on electronic infrastructure It is increasing Russia’s oil shortage, prompting a rare admission by President Vladimir Putin about the growth of the supply.

In a public speech at a senior summit on Sunday, Putin acknowledged that the strike on Ukraine had caused the oil boom.

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“You know very well that the problems of drivers and businessmen continue,” he said, according to Russian news agencies. Unfortunately, there are also lines at gas stations.

“We need to reduce the number of criminals in our targeted crime and infrastructure,” he said, adding that this requires “systematic approaches that are in line with today’s challenges”.

Ukraine is added attacks on Russian power stations in recent months, hitting Russia’s crude oil and refined products, its main source of export earnings and a major source of war funding.

Norsi, Russia’s fourth-largest oil field and second-largest oil producer, suspended production last week following a drone strike in Ukraine. The site is located near Kstovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, 450 kilometers (280 miles) east of Moscow.

Ukraine’s military said it also struck the Orenburg gas plant in Russia, which has a capacity of 45 billion cubic meters per year. It is located in the southern Urals near the border of Russia and Kazakhstan, more than 1,200km (750 miles) beyond the front lines in Ukraine.

Last week, Ukraine used it again remote control drones hit two oil facilities in Kerch in Crimea and the port of Kavkaz, which are used to bring oil to the Russian front.

Remote drones also struck Slavyansk and Yaroslavl oil refineriesabout 300 and 700 kilometers (190 and 435 miles) from the front line, respectively. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after the attack on Sunday that this meant “less support for Russian military equipment”.

“We continue our activities that reduce Russia’s ability to fight this war,” he wrote on X.

What are the consequences of the attack on Ukraine?

Ukraine has been targeting Russian oil refineries, oil storage facilities, oil and gas pumping stations and oil loading ports and has been hit in a very important way, according to Indra Overland, who directs the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)’s Center for Energy Research and is an Associate Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

“At refineries, Ukrainians focus on liquid waste equipment. These are the ‘hearts’ of the refinery and are difficult, expensive and time-consuming to replace,” Overland told Al Jazeera.

“Russia has tried to cover some of them with scaffolding and nets, but this does not work against the most powerful Ukrainian weapons such as the FP-5.”

The Flamingo FP-5 is a long-range missile, with a range of 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) and a payload of over 1,000 kilograms (2,200lbs). It was developed by the Ukrainian defense manufacturer Fire Point.

Ukraine is looking mainly for Russian influence and especially for “muscles to connect with the system,” Margarita Zavadskaya, a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), told Al Jazeera.

The Ukrainian campaign has revealed how protected and spread the development has become in the world’s largest country, Zavadskaya said.

It is difficult to say what the political impact of the oil crisis will be on Russia.

“It is not possible to bring about the collapse of the government or a radical change,” according to Zavadskaya. “The consequences are often complex, overwhelming and politically damaging rather than immediately disruptive.”

How has Russia been affected economically?

Overland, at NUPI, said that the attacks in Ukraine on the Russian economy have been “growing every day”.

“Many regions in Russia have imposed limits on the sale of petrol and diesel, and some petrol stations have closed or have queues that can take up to 12 hours to get through,” he said. This affects the movement of people to work, transport of goods, taxis and agriculture.

Oil shortages in Russia – the world’s largest grain exporter – are also expected to disrupt the critical July-August harvest season, Overland added, when fuel is needed to run tractors, water pumps and other machinery on farms, as well as transportation to market.

The oil crisis is also causing “buying and rising prices that are exacerbating the problem,” the expert said. “It also increases inflation in the economy as a whole because the supply of almost every commodity – including food, medicine, construction materials – is affected by the use of oil.”

The Russian army has not been affected too much, because it is very important. Markku Kivinen, director of the Aleksanteri Institute at the University of Helsinki, Finland, said that Russia should prioritize military operations and, if necessary, will go beyond consumer needs to continue the war in Ukraine.

“This affects the legitimacy of the government but does not lead to a weakening of the war,” said Kivinen.

Why did Putin accept the oil deficit?

On Sunday, the Russian president admitted that Ukraine’s attack on infrastructure “causes problems”. “At the moment we are seeing some decline, but it is not significant,” Putin said in an interview with the Kremlin.

“We will ensure the security of the country and our citizens, and that Russia’s borders will not be breached,” he said.

Zavadskaya, at the FIIA, said the Russian president was forced to accept the oil deficit “because he was too visible to refuse”.

“Outright denial would have seemed impossible and would have led to a very high profile in the crisis,” the expert said. “But the admission followed Putin’s usual routine, especially before and during major crises: The president remains in control, while officials and managers are responsible for failure.”

Kivinen, at the University of Helsinki, said Putin may have decided to accept what happened in Ukraine to “match this escalation with his war narrative”.

“They may accept the rise based on what is happening in Russia,” the analyst told Al Jazeera.

What happened?

Recent events may cause public discontent in Russia.

“Repeated attacks undermine the stability of financial security: Citizens pay taxes, accept oppression, and tolerate war in exchange for order and security,” said Zavadskaya. “When factories burn, oil runs out, and the regime changes, people see that the government can’t deliver everything it claims to govern: security, stability and supply.”

According to Overland, at NUPI, dealing with the energy crisis may be too difficult for Putin. “An interesting question is why Ukraine does not hit many pipelines, because these are thousands of kilometers and they cannot protect them,” he said.

“The reason may be that they are cheap and easy to fix, but it is also possible that Ukraine is saving this for later.”