A severe energy crisis is unfolding in the Russian Federation, directly threatening the country’s civil aviation sector. Several major regional airports have introduced strict limits on refueling commercial aircraft due to an acute shortage of aviation kerosene, according to recent notices sent to flight crews and trading data from the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange. Official warnings and operational restrictions have already been implemented at key transport hubs, including Makhachkala, Mineralnye Vody, Krasnodar, Astrakhan, and Nizhny Novgorod.
Under the newly established regulations, airlines are only permitted to refuel with the minimum volume required to complete a single scheduled flight. For several international destinations, airports have imposed rigid fixed fuel caps, stripping pilots of any safety reserves for emergencies or bad weather rerouting. Furthermore, major carriers report being notified by suppliers of their inability to guarantee fuel deliveries under existing contracts in key cities such as St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Ufa.
This severe supply crunch is a direct consequence of a highly successful campaign of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting Russian energy infrastructure. In the past month alone, 16 Russian oil refineries (NPHs) were hit, causing domestic crude processing volumes to plunge to a 17-year minimum. This massive disruption in production capacity immediately paralyzed the wholesale market, pushing jet fuel prices to an unprecedented high of 113,000 rubles per metric ton—a dramatic 50% increase since early March.
At the same time, transactions involving reactive engine fuel on the St. Petersburg exchange have virtually ground to a halt due to the lack of available product. In a desperate bid to stabilize the domestic market, the Russian Ministry of Energy held an emergency meeting, which resulted in the Kremlin imposing a temporary ban on jet fuel exports lasting until November 30, 2026. However, industry experts point out that export bans cannot rebuild physical refining capacity destroyed by precision strikes, meaning Russian domestic aviation will continue to face severe operational bottlenecks and potential paralysis.