Hundreds of petrol stations across Ukraine have been struck by Russian missiles and drones, attacks described as retaliation for Kyiv's earlier strikes on Russian oil refineries. A petrol station is the retail end of the fuel-supply chain: the above-ground, highly flammable point where processed fuel reaches individual drivers and vehicles. Hitting that layer across hundreds of locations at once targets fuel distribution where it is most spread out and hardest to defend in bulk.
Why petrol stations make a specific kind of target
Refineries are the industrial plants that convert crude oil into usable fuels. They are large, centralized, and can be rebuilt over time. Petrol stations are the opposite in almost every respect. Small, numerous, and spread across cities and rural roads, they store a product that burns readily. That combination of flammability and dispersal makes them vulnerable to wide-area campaigns using missiles and drones. Destroying one refinery takes out a concentrated node. Striking hundreds of petrol stations frays the distribution network at its outer edge.
The exchange of strikes along the supply chain
Ukraine has been targeting Russian oil refineries. The attacks on Ukrainian petrol stations appear to follow the same supply-chain logic in the opposite direction. Rather than striking at fuel production, Russia is now hitting fuel delivery. The aim, in both cases, appears to be making refined fuel scarcer and harder to use, whether by the other side's military or its civilian population.
The targeted stations are described as highly flammable. A burning fuel depot does not extinguish quickly or cleanly, and the secondary damage from a single strike at a fuel stop can extend well beyond the structure itself.
What this means at the distribution level
Petrol stations are the final point at which fuel enters any vehicle, military or civilian. A campaign against hundreds of them simultaneously does not require destroying every one to have effect. Disrupting enough distribution points across enough geography creates shortages through accumulation. Refineries supply the fuel. Petrol stations are where it finally moves into use. Russia is now targeting that last step with missiles and drones.