Russia has taken delivery of its first gasoline cargo from India, Reuters reported on Monday, as Ukrainian attacks knock out refining capacity and a second wave of fuel shortages spreads across at least 10 Russian regions — a notable reversal for a country that ranks among the world's largest exporters of refined oil products.

The roughly 68,000-metric-ton cargo was produced by Nayara Energy at its Vadinar refinery in western India and delivered to Russia's Arctic port of Vitino after a ship-to-ship transfer at Port Said, Egypt. Two more gasoline cargoes from India are expected to reach Russia in the coming weeks. Vadinar, India's second-largest single-site refinery with a capacity of about 400,000 barrels per day, is operated by Nayara Energy, which is part-owned by Russia's state-controlled oil producer Rosneft following a 2017 stake purchase.

The shortages have led filling stations in at least 10 Russian regions to impose sales restrictions or run short of some grades of fuel, with the shortfalls now reaching the Moscow region. Gasoline sales on the St. Petersburg exchange have fallen by an average 20% since the beginning of August. The squeeze comes as fuel demand in Russia typically rises with the late-summer harvest, a period that has coincided with autumn supply crunches in recent years.

Russia was already using gasoline imports from Belarus to plug domestic supply gaps. It is now bringing gasoline and diesel by sea from Asia as refinery outages cut the volume of fuel available inside the country.

Ukraine has spent the summer attacking Russia's refining system, part of a long-range drone campaign against Russian oil infrastructure that has intensified since early 2024 and repeatedly knocked out processing capacity. The latest major casualty is the 120,000-barrel-per-day Orsk refinery, which could remain offline for as long as six months after an August 11 Ukrainian attack. The shutdown has tightened fuel supplies across Russia's Urals region.

In the meantime, Russia is also exporting less fuel. Seaborne petroleum-product exports fell 33.3% in July from June and 54.7% from July 2025, according to Reuters calculations based on LSEG data, as refinery outages reduced available cargoes. Moscow has previously resorted to temporary fuel export restrictions to protect domestic supply, including a gasoline export ban imposed in 2024.

Nayara's Vadinar refinery is a major buyer of Russian crude, although Reuters could not establish whether Russian oil was used to make the gasoline delivered to Vitino. India became one of the largest buyers of Russian crude after Western sanctions over the 2022 invasion of Ukraine pushed Moscow to redirect barrels east at a discount, so a gasoline cargo flowing from India to Russia runs counter to the usual direction of trade between the two countries.

Ukraine continues to launch attacks deeper inside Russia. At least six people were killed and four wounded Monday when Ukrainian rockets struck the village of Koloskovo in Russia's Belgorod region, according to The Moscow Times. Russia's Defense Ministry said another 205 Ukrainian drones were intercepted over Russian territory and occupied Crimea overnight.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com.