New Delhi, Aug. 21 -- On Wednesday morning, Yandex Fuel showed ten filling stations in central Moscow. One had AI-92 regular petrol. The queue at that one was forty minutes long.

down from 41 percent one week earlier. In Moscow, the city with the widest range of logistical options, AI-92 petrol was available at just 10 percent of stations by midweek. Queues formed at pumps in the capital for the first time during this wave. For the drivers in them, the immediate problem was less the price than the simple fact of supply.

The shortage has a cause that Russian state media has not foregrounded. By early July, Ukraine had struck every major Russian oil refinery at least once during its sustained drone campaign. In the first two weeks of Augu...