{"id":2389,"date":"2026-10-09T14:03:48","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T09:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2389"},"modified":"2026-10-09T14:03:48","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T09:03:48","slug":"ukraine-fortifies-its-filling-stations-against-russian-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=2389","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine fortifies its filling stations against Russian attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sand-filled blast barriers \u200band concrete shelters are multiplying at filling stations in Ukraine in a push by \u200cretailers to fortify their networks as Russia attacks fuel infrastructure in major cities.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Russia has struck petrol stations in frontline areas since the beginning of the full-scale war in 2022, but in recent months it has broadened its \u200bair campaign to target fuel retailers in Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv.<\/p>\n

A senior executive at \u200bstate-owned Ukrnafta, Ukraine\u2019s largest oil company, said it was taking steps to protect \u2060its facilities, and the strikes would not cause shortages this winter despite an expected increase in \u200bdemand of 10-15%.<\/p>\n

Even when petrol stations are hit, operations are sometimes restored within days, said Lesya \u200bZharska, director of Ukrnafta\u2019s station network.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will protect the facilities. We will restore the facilities. We are ready for the winter,\u201d she said in an interview at an Ukrnafta station on the outskirts of Kyiv. On the \u200bother side of the road, workers were rebuilding a station destroyed in a recent attack.<\/p>\n

In recent \u200bweeks, at least six Ukrnafta filling stations have been hit in Kyiv. In total, Russia has destroyed more than \u200c300 \u2060stations in the last six months, Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said.<\/p>\n

Moscow says it does not deliberately target Ukraine\u2019s civilian infrastructure, but it has stepped up attacks on populated areas as its forces struggle to advance on the ground.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ukrainian attacks on oil refineries have caused fuel shortages in \u200bRussia, which has introduced \u200ban export ban.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Mitigating risks<\/strong><\/h3>\n

To \u2060mitigate the risks in population centres such as Kyiv, where it has three dozen of its 660 stations, Ukrnafta has put up blast barriers \u200bmade of wire-mesh cubes – or gabions – filled with sand.<\/p>\n

The aim is \u200bto install them \u2060in other cities soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there is a yellow or red air alarm, we stop operations and ask customers to leave, and staff head to shelters,\u201d Zharska said.<\/p>\n

Russia is widely expected to intensify strikes on \u2060Ukraine\u2019s \u200benergy infrastructure once again as temperatures drop in winter.<\/p>\n

Ukrnafta has \u200balready equipped stations across its network with back-up diesel generators and contracted sufficient fuel imports to prevent supply gaps, Zharska \u200bsaid, adding:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will carry out our work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sand-filled blast barriers \u200band concrete shelters are multiplying at filling stations in Ukraine in a push by \u200cretailers to fortify their networks as Russia attacks fuel infrastructure in major cities. Russia has struck petrol stations in frontline areas since the beginning of the full-scale war in 2022, but in recent months it has broadened its \u200bair campaign to target fuel retailers in Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv. A senior executive at \u200bstate-owned Ukrnafta, Ukraine\u2019s largest oil company, said it was taking steps to protect \u2060its facilities, and the strikes would not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}