The logistics situation in southern Ukraine and in Crimea remains critical for the Russians. To somehow justify the fuel shortage on the peninsula, enemy propaganda invented an interesting fake. According to their information, gasoline and diesel fuel have not disappeared from the occupied territories, but the Russians are limiting their sale, because they are stockpiling them for a further attempt to cross the Dnipro and capture Kherson.
This information is spread by Russian publications from the left bank of the Kherson region.
«Many Ukrainian commentators talk about difficulties on the peninsula and try to present the situation as a sign of serious internal problems. However, Russia, if necessary, has at its disposal the capabilities to organize fuel supplies and passenger transport. We see a worrying trend. Is Russia now preparing a new offensive from Crimea against Mykolaiv, Kherson and, possibly, further?» – the journalists of the propagandist media «Bloknot.Kherson» pose rhetorically.
Russian propagandists in their suppositions supposedly refer to the «Ukrainian political scientist» Kostyantyn Bondarenko. The man notes that the situation in the occupied territories may be part of a «big plan», and the Kyiv authorities «do not see» the overall picture.
Note that Bondarenko himself is an active spreader of enemy narratives, cooperating, for example, with the publication «Ukraina.ru». For this, in May 2025 by decision of the NSDC the «expert» was included in sanctions lists. The man now lives abroad, from where, of course, it is much more comfortable for him to spread disinformation.
As for the fakes about fuel, the situation with it in the occupied territories of southern Ukraine is indeed approaching critical. For example, the Russians were forced to cancel passenger transportation between Nova Kakhovka and Henichesk, because they simply have nothing to refuel the buses with.
If fuel on the occupied peninsula is really being stockpiled for some «offensive», then how to explain its shortage in regions of Russia and even in its capital? In reality, this problem arose due to strikes by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on enemy refineries and Ukrainian drones’ control over the «Novorossiya» route. The absence of gasoline and diesel fuel, in turn, does not bring the Russians closer to crossing the Dnipro, but makes it practically impossible.