Russian-held Sevastopol suspends fuel distribution as Zelenskiy praises attacks on energy assets

By Ronald Popeski and Jekaterina Golubkova

June 11 (Reuters) - The governor of Sevastopol in Russian-held Crimea said on Wednesday that plans for distributing rationed petrol had been delayed because trucks had been unable to bring the fuel into the city, following recent Ukraine strikes on supply routes.

Mikhail Razvozhayev's announcement that petrol rationing coupons temporarily could not be honoured coincided with remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that Kyiv's long-running campaign targeting energy assets in Russia and the lands it annexed had proved its worth.

   Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, long before Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, introduced rationing for fuel last month because of shortages in the peninsula.

"Unfortunately, oil tanker trucks were unable to come to the city tonight," Razvozhayev wrote on Telegram, adding that priority for refuelling on Thursday would be given to public transport and utilities, emergency and government vehicles. 

"I am addressing everyone: there is no point in lining up at... the gas stations tomorrow," he said late on Wednesday, adding that existing fuel rationing coupons would be cancelled and new ones issued on Thursday. 

Over two dozen Ukrainian drones were downed in the early hours of Thursday in a fresh attack on Sevastopol, the peninsula's second-largest city and home to Russia's Black Sea fleet, Razvozhayev later said on Telegram. 

The city's fuel shortages come as Ukraine intensifies its campaign of medium and long-range drone and missile strikes on Russian industry facilities, which already forced Moscow to cut oil output in the world's third-largest producer. 

"In recent months, we are especially grateful for the mid-strikes: Russian military logistics throughout the entire depth of the temporarily occupied territory are now within reach of Ukrainian drones," Zelenskiy said in his evening address. 

Ukrainian forces struck the Russian-occupied port of Mariupol, Kyiv said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of drone attacks on logistics across a critical stretch of Moscow-held southern Ukraine connecting Russia to Crimea.

The attack on the port, which Ukraine's military said plunged the site into a blackout, followed two strikes earlier this week on a bridge linking the Russian-occupied Kherson region to the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

On Thursday, authorities in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, just across from Crimea, said a fire broke out in the area surrounding the Afipsky refinery as a result of falling drone debris as defence systems were repelling an air attack. 

Three people were injured after falling drone debris caused fire in an apartment building in the city of Krasnodar and a drone attack on the nearby Seversky district, regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram, without providing further details. Another oil refinery, the Ilsky plant, is located in the area.

That followed a massive Wednesday drone attack on Russia's Volga region of Samara, more than 900 km (550 miles) from the front line, which, according to sources, forced state oil giant Rosneft to halt processing at its Kuibyshev oil refinery. 

"Our impact reaches Russia's border regions as well. The enemy feels it, and we will continue to expand it," Zelenskiy said on Telegram late on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Jekaterīna Golubkova; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)