Fuel Shortages Reported in Russia’s Krasnodar Region Fuel may be running dry in Russia’s Krasnodar region, but the real shortage is of official accountability, not gasoline — at least if you believe the governor.

Residents across Krasnodar Krai describe a classic fuel crisis: empty pumps, kilometer-long queues, and drivers filling not just tanks but canisters “just in case.” Local outlets and Telegram channels report that some stations have simply run out of gasoline, especially along routes to the Black Sea coast and around Anapa and Krasnodar.

The official line from Governor Veniamin Kondratyev is that there is no shortage at all — only psychology. He blames “artificial panic buying” driven by a “difficult situation” in neighboring regions, particularly annexed Crimea, where a full-blown fuel crisis has pushed drivers to cross into Krasnodar to fill up. According to Kondratyev, the problem is limited to “temporary supply difficulties” at small private stations, while large chains have fuel and suppliers are “optimizing logistics” to keep everything “under control.”

The opposition media narrative turns that upside down. Meduza links the Krasnodar shortages to a wider pattern of disruptions reported in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and multiple other regions, all unfolding amid Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian refineries and fuel infrastructure. Even Russia’s own Energy Ministry, it notes, has admitted that “an increase in enemy air attacks” has caused “temporary difficulties with fuel deliveries in a number of southern regions.”

Where the governor sees nervous motorists and local supply quirks, investigative outlet The Insider frames Krasnodar as Crimea’s spillover problem: Crimean residents driving in to buy what they cannot find at home, small private stations running dry first, and de facto rationing spreading across Russia’s south.

In other words, Kremlin-aligned officials are selling a story of consumer panic; critical outlets are selling one of war-driven scarcity. On the forecourt, drivers stuck in line don’t need a press release to decide which version feels real.