Russia Is Losing Hundreds of Tons of Gasoline Because of AFU Drone Attacks on Oil Depots, Court Cases Show

Russia is losing hundreds of tons of gasoline because of AFU drone attacks on oil depots, court cases have shown

Ukrainian drone attacks in 2024-2025 led to losses ranging from dozens to hundreds of tons of gasoline at a time and the disruption of major fuel contracts. This became clear during proceedings in arbitration courts, which were highlighted by Verstka.

After the drone attacks, oil depot clients began demanding through the courts either the return of their fuel or compensation for its value. In response, the storage facilities cited force majeure circumstances that arose through no fault of their own. During these disputes, data emerged on the scale of petroleum product losses caused by AFU strikes.

For example, in February 2026, the Moscow Arbitration Court awarded more than 8.4 million rubles from the Crimea-based Marine Oil Terminal in favor of Mosregiongaz. The latter proved to the court with documents that it had stored 132 tons of AI-92 gasoline and nearly 24 tons of diesel fuel at the terminal. After a UAV attack in October 2024, the petroleum products were destroyed.

At the same time, in April 2026, the court sided with the Millerovo oil depot. In that case, VSK-Neftesbyt demanded that the depot return 67 tons of AI-92 gasoline or compensate its value, more than five million rubles. At trial, it emerged that more than 223 tons of fuel had been in storage in Rostov Region and had "burned completely" after fragments of a drone shot down by air defenses hit a tank in August 2025.

The cases uncovered by Verstka likely reflect only a small part of the consequences of the attacks. Only those cases where the parties could not agree on compensation and decided to go to arbitration end up in court. In addition, not all published rulings disclose details about the strikes.

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