Is Ukraine's war machine operating on Russian oil? Here's what customs officials say

The mammoth tanks used by Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion are likely to be fueled by oil from its own adversary, according to German media. Ukrainian customs officials who spoke to Düsseldorf-based Handelsblatt outlet, claimed that Kyiv often uses Russian oil refined in nations like Turkey and Hungary to power its military equipment, such as tanks and diesel generators. 

Hungarian oil and gas company MOL is said to have “doubled its sales to Ukraine in the past six months", and since the company extracts a substantial proportion of oil from Russia, Ukraine's war machine is speculated to be primarily powered by it. It is important to note that Hungary holds a special waver on importing crude oil from Russia through pipelines, despite being a member of the European Union (EU). 

The waiver allows the country to circumvent the bloc's sanctions against Moscow, thus helping MOL offer the war-torn nation a relatively lower price on refined petroleum products than other firms across Europe, as per the German daily. But Ukraine hasn't always been dependent on oil from Russia.

How has Ukraine managed to not run out of oil? 

Before the raging war broke out in February last year, the country was able to meet 30% of its domestic needs, thanks to the Kremenchug refinery located in the Poltava Oblast. The refinery processed imports from Azerbaijan, but fell under attack and was “severely damaged” by a barrage of Russian missile strikes in April 2022. 

Despite the string of challenges, Ukraine still has managed to avoid a shortage of fuel, thanks to Western support. “Fuel deliveries are mainly made by rail via Poland. The fuel comes from Slovakia and Hungary by pipeline, while from Romania the diesel is first shipped and then transported by rail," said Michal Paszkowski, an analyst at the Institute of Central Europe (IES) in Lublin.