Kanyshai Butun
18 May 2026•Update: 18 May 2026
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed Monday that Russia has reduced its active oil wells and oil refining capacity following Ukrainian “long-range sanctions.”
Zelenskyy also cited what he described as signs of a growing banking crisis in Russia and an expanding federal budget deficit.
“Given the specifics of Russian oil production, these are significant losses, as restarting wells in Russia is far more difficult than in other oil-producing countries,” he said, adding that “just a single” Russian oil company, “not even the largest one,” had been forced to shut down around 400 wells.
He further claimed that Russia’s oil refining capacity declined by at least 10 percent in the first few months of the year.
“We see that our Ukrainian long-range sanctions are truly effective, and we will continue to scale up this line of our active actions,” he added.
Zelenskyy also claimed that Russia’s federal budget deficit reached nearly $80 billion by the fifth month of the year, while a significant number of regional budgets were facing bankruptcy.
He further alleged that Ukraine had documented attempts to export grain from annexed Crimea, alongside what he described as efforts to involve entities from the US, as well as attempts to bring investment and technology from democratic countries into Russia’s Arctic oil and gas projects.
“We know how to counter this,” he underlined.
