Russia imposed a ban on diesel exports by producers on Wednesday, triggering an immediate spike in European benchmark diesel margins to a record $60.17 per barrel. The prohibition, which runs until 31 July, extends existing restrictions that previously applied only to traders and non-producing sellers. It marks the most sweeping fuel-export curb Moscow has enacted since Ukrainian drone strikes began systematically degrading the country’s refining capacity.

More than 90 percent of Russian regions have experienced fuel rationing or outright shortages since June, according to official statements and local media. Long queues and scuffles at petrol stations have become common, and pump prices have risen 11.6 percent since January. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told a televised government meeting that the situation remained “complex” and that Russia would begin importing fuel in July — a striking reversal for the world’s third-largest oil producer. The government also extended duty exemptions on imported petroleum products and will permit the production of lower-environmental-standard fuels to boost domestic supply.

Ukrainian drones have struck refineries as far as Omsk in western Siberia, some 2,700 kilometres from the front line, forcing crude-processing rates to multi-year lows. Russia’s seaborne diesel and gasoil exports had already collapsed by 39 percent in June from the previous month, and by 46 percent compared with a year earlier. Turkey and Brazil together absorbed at least half of the available cargoes in June, while Morocco, Egypt and Senegal emerged as significant new importers. The ban exempts supplies under intergovernmental agreements, such as those with Mongolia, but otherwise removes a major source of global diesel at a time when markets are already strained by the Iran conflict.

Viewed from European trading desks, the export halt removes a supplier that last year accounted for roughly 11 percent of global diesel supply. With the ban in place until the end of July, attention now turns to whether Russia’s emergency imports and relaxed fuel standards can stabilise the domestic market before the deadline, and how traditional buyers in the Mediterranean, South America and Africa will secure alternative cargoes.