Russia queues, Britain arms the strikes
Britain is arming the drone strikes on Russian oil terminals, and households in both countries are picking up the tab.
Ukraine set fire to one of Russia’s largest oil terminals on 4 July using drones from a war Britain arms, with the fallout landing on households in both countries.
Two queues, one war
A mother in Irkutsk queued 18 hours for petrol this week with her baby beside her. Portable toilets have been installed at the pumps for motorists waiting it out. “Are we in the Soviet Union?” she asked. Fuel is now rationed in more than half of Russia’s 83 regions, capped at 20 to 30 litres a car, with price controls and a state of emergency declared in Crimea.
“I’m deeply frightened by the uncertainty and the lack of understanding where the situation is heading,” said Irina, a Moscow resident. Igor, another Moscow resident, said he feared “things can get out of control if the crisis causes major industries to shut down.” Neither queued for a war they started.
In Britain, the Ofgem price cap rose 13% on 1 July to £1,663 a year for a typical household, with gas bills up 24%. The number of households spending more than a tenth of their income on energy has risen from 11.3 million to 13.5 million, according to the End Fuel Poverty Coalition. “These bill rises leave households carrying energy debt straight into winter,” said the coalition’s Simon Francis.
The strikes, and Britain’s hand in them
The St Petersburg terminal handles around 12.5 million tonnes of fuel a year and had gone almost untouched since the invasion began. Ukraine’s General Staff says it has now disabled 42.74% of Russian refining capacity, with 194 strikes on Russian refineries so far this year, an elevenfold rise on 2025.
Britain is not a bystander to that campaign. The government has committed to supplying 150,000 drones to Ukraine by the end of 2026 as part of a £750m package, alongside a further £5bn for autonomous weapons that Keir Starmer has called a response to “the wars of today and tomorrow.” Much of that money goes to UK firms, Tekever, Windracers and Malloy Aeronautics among them.
Who takes the risk
Ofgem says July’s rise was driven by the Iran war, not Ukraine’s oil strikes, and that distinction matters: British bills are not yet proven to be moving on the refinery campaign. What is clear is that Europe heads into winter with gas storage at 48% against a five-year average of 61%, and a second front of energy volatility, Russian export infrastructure, now opening on top of the first. Analyst Stanislav Mitrakhovich warned the fuel crisis will drive “significant price hikes for goods and services” inside Russia too.
Downing Street calls this pushing back Putin. For the family queuing in Irkutsk and the family behind on their meter in Britain, it is a bill written for someone else’s war.
