Running on almost-empty tanks: occupiers abandon equipment in Kherson region due to a fuel shortage

Russian air defense units operating in temporarily occupied Crimea and in the Kherson region are experiencing a severe fuel shortage. Due to supply problems, the occupiers’ command has introduced strict restrictions on refueling mobile fire groups and air defense equipment, reported the partisan movement “ATESH“.

According to agents of the movement embedded in Russian forces, fuel is mainly allowed to be used during direct combat sorties. The rest of the time vehicles and other equipment remain in place without the possibility of full patrols or repositioning.

One of the “ATESH” agents in an air defense unit operating in the Chonhar area described the fuel situation.

“They give fuel by the teaspoon. You can start the vehicle only if it’s a combat sortie. The rest of the time the equipment just stands. If it runs out on the road – you just abandon it and run to the nearest trench or to a village to wait out the drones,” – says one of the agents in the air defense unit operating in the Chon.

According to the partisan movement, supply problems have been recorded in several Russian units at once. In temporarily occupied Crimea this concerns the 1096th anti-aircraft missile regiment of the 22nd Army Corps, as well as mobile fire groups operating along the R-280 route and in the Chonhar area.

In the occupied part of the Kherson Oblast, a fuel shortage, according to “ATESH”, has arisen in the air defense units and unmanned systems of the 49th Combined Arms Army of Russia.

Movement agents claim that crews are forced to go on missions with almost empty tanks. When fuel runs out on the road, Russian servicemen leave vehicles right on the route and walk to the nearest shelters, trenches, or populated areas.

Such cases, “ATESH” reports, were recorded on the rear route between Henichesk and Skadovsk. Abandoned equipment can remain in the open for a long time until it is detected by Ukrainian drones.

The partisan movement believes that the Russian command is trying not to disclose the scale of the supply problems. At the same time, interruptions even with routine refueling of equipment indicate a deterioration in the occupiers’ military logistics.

Agents of “ATESH” continue to collect information within Russian army units and pass the obtained data to the Defense Forces of Ukraine.

Earlier we wrote:

• In the Armyansk area, a massive strike hit the occupiers’ semi-underground logistics hub
• Bridges are burning, air defenses are disappearing, and logistics is collapsing: Ukraine has turned Crimea into a mousetrap for the occupiers
• Almost half of Russia’s oil refining is halted: Ukrainian drones inflicted $13.5 billion in losses on the industry
• The occupiers’ logistics is collapsing: Crimea left without gasoline, electricity and ferries
• Russia is entering a fuel crisis: gasoline is being rationed, refineries cannot recover in time after strikes