The gas station was already ablaze when police officer Mikhailo Tsyplyakov and his colleagues rushed to help. He heard the second drone descend and hit the ground.
“I saw a flash and immediately stood up,” Tsyplyakov said. “I could see that his arms, legs and torso were injured.”
He is one of dozens of victims of Russia’s recent operations against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, gas stations. According to Ukrainian authorities, there were more than 200 attacks in June and July, which equates to about three attacks per day.
Tsyplyakov said their aim was “to intimidate, instill fear and panic. The most frightening thing now is panic, because when people panic, they lose control.”
The attacks have focused on gas stations close to the front lines and easily reachable by Russian attack drones. But airstrikes, long-range drones, and short-range small attack drones have also added to the toll, hitting targets near the capital Kiev.
Ukrainians see the Russian campaign as an attempt to cause the same chaos seen at Russian gas stations since Ukraine repeatedly attacked Russian refineries, causing huge lines for fuel around Moscow and other major cities.
Russia’s escalation of attacks on civilian targets comes at a time when Western officials are warning of a possible escalation by Russian President Vladimir Putin in response to damage caused by Kiev’s long-range drone campaign against Russia’s industrial infrastructure.
At least nine people were killed and more than 30 injured in a Russian ballistic missile attack on Kiev overnight into Saturday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Fires and damage were reported in seven regions of the capital, including the western Solomyansky district, where a five-story residential building was partially destroyed. This followed a major and deadly air attack by Russia on Ukraine earlier this week, which also used powerful ballistic missiles.
Videos of Russian shipping warehouses and oil refineries going up in flames have pierced the veneer of security Russia has tried to maintain in the four years since the war began. Russia has launched a record number of ballistic missiles in recent weeks, making June the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since 2022, the United Nations reported.
CNN’s analysis identified and verified at least 30 videos of attacks on gas stations across the country in June and July.
Regina Kharchenko, acting mayor of Zaporizhzhia, said there were 54 strikes targeting gas stations in the city in the 24 days ending July 27. It added that four people were killed and 29 injured in these strikes.
“This is a deliberate act of terrorism targeting civilian infrastructure and civilians,” Kharchenko said. “Russia intentionally targets facilities that have no military significance but are essential to the daily functioning of large cities.”
The city of Zaporizhzhia is increasingly within the range of Russian drones, which extend beyond front-line “kill zones” and enable Moscow’s attack planes to harass and kill within major population centers.
Kramatorsk, a town in the Donbas region that is moving closer and closer to Russian expansion, and Kharkov, which is close to the Russian border, have also been severely affected.
In Ukraine, where travel by commercial air is not possible and whose vast territory is connected by a vast road and rail network, fuel stations take on great value as places where evacuees, soldiers, and transport drivers can all pause, regroup, and recover.
Yaroslav Starovoitenko, head of the Ukrainian Oil and Gas Association, said the Russian attack was aimed at “intimidating” civilians. “Gas stations became important places of refuge for people fleeing the war. Russia then deliberately caused power outages, cut off electricity and heating, and tried to freeze us into winter.”
He said the gas station has a generator that is always running. “These were places where people could drink hot tea, fill up their cars with gas, warm themselves, and even prepare milk for their babies.”
A quick visit to a gas station on the outskirts of Kiev shows that the panic is not universal. Serhii joked that he was discharged from the army after being seriously wounded at the front. “If a strike comes here, what’s the difference?” he said. “I wasn’t killed on the front lines, so I won’t be killed here either.”
“No one knows where an attack will happen, no one knows what will happen next, but I’m working and I have no choice but to go,” said Vladislav, a delivery driver.
Another driver, Maxim, said: “Right now there are no problems in Kiev, but if they keep destroying it, of course there will be problems.”
Moscow flaunted these attacks online. Russia’s elite drone unit Rubicon posted a video this month showing nine strikes against gas stations in Kharkiv and Sumy oblasts.
Ukrainian officials suggested the attack was aimed at demonstrating that Russia could similarly disrupt Ukraine’s fuel supplies, as the country suffered from long-range targeting of its refineries by Ukraine.
“People used to joke that Russia is a ‘gas station nation’, but the reality is that this ‘gas station nation’ has run out of gas. There are huge lines at (Russian) gas stations,” he said.
Additional reporting by Daria Tarasova-Markina, Svitlana Vlasova, Kosta Gak, and Victoria Butenko.
