Russia requests 100,000 tons of gasoline from Kazakhstan amid refinery attacks

Russia has asked Kazakhstan to supply it with 100,000 tons of gasoline in anticipation of a potential shortage, which may worsen due to Ukraine’s drone strike campaign, Reuters reported , citing three industry sources.
According to the report, one source stated that the use of Kazakhstan’s strategic gasoline reserves to shore up domestic Russian market had already been agreed upon.
At the same time, an adviser to the Kazakh Energy Minister Shingys Ilyasov noted that his department had not received any such request from Moscow. The Russian Ministry of Energy has declined to comment on the matter.
In recent weeks, Ukrainian drone strikes have disrupted at least 10% of Russia's refinery capacity, the U.K. Defense Ministry said on March 23, and has forced Russia to impose a six month gasoline export ban that began on March 1 to avoid acute shortages.
The increased attacks against oil refineries have caught the attention of the United States, who warned Ukraine to stop attacking Russian oil refineries, allegedly out of concern that strikes could raise global oil prices and increase the risk of further retaliation, the Financial Times reported.
Ukraine continues to maintain that targeting Russian energy infrastructure is a legitimate military strategy.
"We used our drones. Nobody can say to us you can’t," Zelensky told the Washington Post on March 30 emphasizing that Washington could not limit Ukraine's use of its own weapons.
Fossil fuels are the primary drivers of the Russian economy and the main source of revenue for the Kremlin's war machine. Despite Russia's gasoline export ban, the country continues to supply countries in the Moscow-led Eurasian economic union, including Kazakhstan.
Amid chronic gasoline shortages, Kazakhstan itself restricted fuel exports until the end of 2024.