All fuel imports to Ukraine now go through the borders with the EU, said the Minister of Infrastructure of the country Alexander Kubrakov
Ukraine is forced to buy fuel “wherever it can be obtained”, including in Belgium and the Netherlands due to the disruption of traditional supply chains, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said in an interview with the Financial Times (FT).
” ;Previously, we used only the countries closest to Ukraine and ports in Poland and Romania, now we import from Belgium, the Netherlands,— he said.
As the newspaper notes, the acute shortage of fuel is caused by the fact that Ukraine has lost the ability to deliver it across the Black Sea from Azerbaijan and Romania. Also deliveries are stopped from Belarus. The situation with fuel is complicated by the destruction of the only large oil refinery in Ukraine in Kremenchug, which accounted for about 40% of gasoline and diesel supplies, as a result of an airstrike, the newspaper writes.
«All our import— from EU»,— Kubrakov told the FT.
In June, Kyiv plans to import up to 600 thousand tons of fuel from Europe, which is ten times more than in March. Kubrakov expressed hope that the fuel situation will stabilize by autumn, when Ukraine will conclude more long-term contracts with foreign suppliers.
Every day, up to 230 fuel trucks cross the border of Ukraine from the European Union, but they are forced to stand in long lines, the newspaper writes. It is planned to solve this problem with the help of agreements with Poland and the EU on the simplification of border and customs control.
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Before the start of the Russian special operation, the share of fuel supplies to Ukraine across the borders with Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania was 5%, said Rostislav Shurma, deputy head of the Ukrainian president's office. According to him, Kyiv has already increased the capacity on the borders with the EU ten times and wants to double it more.
Fuel shortage in Ukraine has been observed since April. The country's Prime Minister Denys Shmygal then stated that the shortage of gasoline at gas stations was due to the “destruction of part of the infrastructure”, in particular, the shutdown of the Kremenchug oil refinery. The fuel crisis has led to queues at Ukrainian gas stations and, despite government regulation, several times higher fuel prices at gas stations, the Ekonomicheskaya Pravda newspaper wrote.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a quick decision on there is no elimination of the fuel shortage, but called on the government to quickly solve this problem, wrote the publication “Ukrainian News”.
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