Expert warns of risks for Ukraine due to deteriorating global fuel situation

The director of consulting group A95, Sergei Kuyun, has stated that the global fuel situation is now significantly worse than it was in the spring.

He spoke about this during the podcast “Shcho z ekonomikoyu?” (“What’s with the economy?”).

“In the spring, fuel stocks were high and consumption was low. Today it’s the opposite — demand is sky-high and stocks are minimal. They were simply ‘eaten up’ in the spring… There’s no end to this story in sight,” said Kuyun.

The expert stressed that certain risks also exist for Ukraine. According to him, in the spring, in the first days of March, when fuel prices spiked sharply, Poland, Romania, and Moldova closed their exports.

“A very unpleasant aftertaste remained from the spring, when in the first days of March, when prices shot up, the Poles immediately closed exports — not only to Ukraine, well, yes, they closed them, the Romanians closed them, the Moldovans closed them too. And that’s how it all went. We always thought we had such a diversified system, but then everyone thinks of themselves first,” Kuyun added.

In addition, the expert reported rumors about Poland’s intentions to reduce fuel supply volumes to Ukraine. According to his data, Poland has already cut planned supply volumes for August by approximately 20–30%.

Earlier, the founder of the Prime group of companies and fuel expert Dmitry Leushkin stated that within just 10 days, a liter of diesel fuel in Ukraine could cost 105 hryvnias, while the price of gasoline would be 100 hryvnias per liter. According to Leushkin, the blockade of key maritime straits in the Middle East and the tense situation around Iran have effectively cut Ukraine off from access to additional oil capacities.