Russia turns to South Korean and Turkish fuel as refinery outages reshape trade

An exporter begins sourcing farther abroad

Russia expanded fuel purchases to South Korea and Turkey as damage and outages at refineries disrupted domestic supply, according to a September 11 assessment reported by the Kyiv Independent. The analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air says Russian oil-product imports reached 172,000 metric tonnes in August, more than seven times the previous monthly high.

The reported flows include fuel from South Korea, gasoline refined in India from Russian crude and the first Turkish cargoes arriving in September. The unusual trade pattern does not mean Russia has ceased exporting oil or petroleum products. It shows that a large producer can still face regional or product-specific shortages when refinery capacity, ports and internal logistics are interrupted.

Strikes affect refining and port schedules

The assessment links the shift to Ukraine’s sustained campaign against Russian energy infrastructure. It says attacks on Novorossiysk interrupted exports for nine consecutive days, the longest disruption at the port since the full-scale invasion began. Tuapse, once Russia’s fourth-largest oil-product export port, reportedly loaded no product cargoes for a third consecutive month after a May drone strike.

Ukraine has openly described Russian oil facilities and transshipment infrastructure as targets intended to restrict the revenues and logistics supporting Moscow’s war. A June presidential address said Ukrainian forces had struck 15 Russian refineries between January and May. That official statement establishes Kyiv’s wider campaign, while the new import volumes and supplier countries come from the independent energy assessment rather than from the Ukrainian government.

Economic pressure has limits

Importing refined fuel over long distances raises transport and handling costs and may force Russia to use vessels otherwise available for exports. It can also expose domestic prices to foreign refinery margins and shipping constraints. However, the figures do not demonstrate that Russia’s broader oil sector has collapsed. The country retains crude production, export routes and the ability to repair facilities or redistribute supply.

The development matters because it offers a measurable indicator of how physical attacks are changing trade rather than only damaging individual sites. The next evidence to watch is whether September imports remain elevated, whether Turkish shipments continue, how quickly refinery utilisation recovers and whether port loading schedules normalise. EU sanctions continue to target Russian energy revenues and shadow-fleet services, adding financial and logistical pressure to the disruption created by Ukrainian strikes.