Months of Ukrainian strikes on Russia’s oil infrastructure have led to widespread fuel rationing, with Russian President Vladimir Putin now unable to mask the war’s economic effects.The Russian petrol shortages come amid other good news for Ukraine, which during the past week garnered 4 billion euros ($4.6bn) in new military aid commitments from its allies for anti-ballistic interceptors, long-range artillery and unmanned systems.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listUkrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said Ukraine and Germany also signed an agreement to develop a European anti-ballistic interceptor missile – a longstanding desire of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.The European Union, too, released 6 billion euros ($6.9bn) in military aid from its European Peace Facility and started talks that are expected to lead to Ukraine’s membership. Both developments had long been delayed by Hungarian premier Viktor Orban, who lost power in April. [Al Jazeera]After opening the first of six negotiation clusters with Brussels to join the EU, Zelenskyy urged the EU Intergovernmental Conference to move faster and open the remaining five simultaneously.“Ukraine has earned the right to move faster … We are ready to open all clusters. We have done our work. Everyone in Europe knows this,” he said.Rationing in RussiaRussian independent news outlet The Bell reported rationing in 53 Russian regions and in occupied Ukraine on Wednesday.That rationing had reached the principal urban centres of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, where the Tatneft chain of petrol stations on Monday began limiting customers to 20 litres of petrol (5.3 gallons) and …
