By Jekaterina Golubkova
July 3 (Reuters) – Cossacks and volunteers have stepped in to help city officials and police keep order and prevent conflicts at petrol stations in the popular Russian Black Sea resort of Anapa, as Ukrainian attacks worsen a countrywide fuel crisis.
Strikes by Ukraine on energy infrastructure in Russia, the third-biggest oil producer globally, have triggered a fuel crisis in the world’s largest country by territory, forcing it to import gasoline from as far away as India.
In Anapa, a popular vacation spot in the southern region of Krasnodar, Cossacks, a historic military and social community known for their distinctive uniforms and traditional fur hats, are among those helping to prevent fights when cars line up for fuel, the city’s administration said on Telegram.
“They regulate traffic flow, prevent conflicts and attempts to fill petrol cans with fuel, and ensure that the queue is maintained in an orderly manner,” said the post published late on Thursday.
Like other places in Russia and parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine, Anapa restricts drivers to buying 20 litres of gasoline per car, which a resident, Aleksandra Nesterenko, told a local TV station was enough for about a week.
“I’ve come to terms with it. If the restrictions were introduced, then there’s a good reason for them,” Nesterenko, a woman who appeared to be in her 30s, said in the video that was attached to the city administration’s post.
The changes have helped trim waiting times to 30 to 40 minutes from up to four hours, Arsen Melkumyan, an administration official, said in the same video, posing in front of a petrol station as cars kept coming and going.
“By oath and by calling, we serve our homeland and the Orthodox faith, helping people navigate at the petrol station and preventing conflicts,” one of the Cossacks, Anatoly Kasyanov, a man who looked to be in his 50s wearing a khaki uniform and a traditional fur hat, said in the video.
Anapa is one of the most crowded sea resorts in the Krasnodar region, where energy infrastructure is a frequent target of Kyiv’s air attacks following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Krasnodar officials said in a separate Telegram post on Friday that a number of private houses and a gas pipeline were damaged by falling drone debris but there were no casualties.
On Thursday, Russia allowed refiners to produce gasoline and diesel with higher sulphur content for six months until the end of the year, a government decree showed, adding to other measures taken to ease the fuel crisis that has spread to the country’s eastern borders.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has proposed peace talks several times with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the Kremlin leader has rejected the proposals.
Both sides exchange attacks nearly daily, and on Thursday Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, killing at least 30 people.
(Reporting by Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo; Editing by Tom Hogue)
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