Walking past a line of parked trucks in the town of Ramenskoye outside Moscow, Valeria Savenkova, commercial director of logistics operator Logistic Performance, said rising fuel costs had forced her company to scale back its geographical footprint.
Earlier this year, her company was doing long-haul freight carriage across what is the world’s largest country.
But Savenkova said fuel prices had risen by 16% to 18% in the past month — the result of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries — pushing up the company’s transport costs by 4.5% to 5.5%.
“We managed to reorganise our logistics operations very quickly and moved away from long-haul routes,” Savenkova told Reuters, saying that there were still fuel restrictions in parts of Siberia where prices were considerably higher.
“We’re no longer running deliveries across Russia’s regions.
And we are focusing on shorter routes within the Moscow region and delivering cargo to the nearest ports.”
Despite Russia’s extensive railway network, more than 70% of all cargo in the first half of 2026 was transported by road, according to state statistical agency Rosstat.
Higher trucking costs are adding to inflationary pressure, and even if the situation stabilises, industry sources say nobody expects prices to return to previous levels.
Many of the fuel shortages, which this summer spread across Russia’s 11 time zones after Ukraine intensified its strikes, have eased, authorities say.
Russia has imported fuel to offset the shortfall and eased fuel quality regulations.
