Russia bans military uniforms on fuel drivers after Ukrainian strikes burn tankers. They’re delivering to front line in bread vans and ambulances

Russian forces have ordered fuel deliveries to the front line in ambulances, bread trucks, postal vans, and other civilian transport after Ukrainian deep strikes. The order applies to the P-280 "Novorossiya" highway, the supply artery from southern Russia through occupied Ukrainian territory, the Ukrainian intelligence-partisan network ATESH reports, citing a source embedded in Russia's "Dnepr" troop grouping.

The directive turns civilian vehicle categories, including protected categories like ambulances, into legitimate military targets, a use of civilian infrastructure for military ends that violates Articles 37 and 38 of the Geneva Conventions' Additional Protocol I.

It is also a measure of how badly Ukraine's deep-strike campaign on Russian fuel infrastructure is biting: when fuel tankers can no longer be driven, the army repurposes ambulances and bread vans.

"Tankers are burned on approach"

According to the ATESH agent inside the Dnepr grouping, vehicles to be used include confiscated Russian civilian cars, municipal service vehicles, postal vans, bread trucks, and delivery vans for food and medications.

The cargo will consist of fuel canisters ranging from 20 to 1,000 liters. Drivers and escorts are strictly forbidden from wearing military uniforms.

Russian business transport and vehicles provided by pro-war "Z-volunteers" will also be requisitioned.

"They're moving away from fuel tankers. Almost no one drives them anymore, they're burned even on approach," the agent said.

They added that now drivers will go in civilian clothes, so "it can't be told apart from the air."

Direct response from Russia

The order is a direct response to Ukraine's deep-strike campaign on Russian fuel logistics. Ukrainian forces have struck Russian oil refineries, depots, tankers, and rail terminals on a sustained basis through 2025-2026, including the Ilsky refinery hit on 2 June, the Novoshakhtinsk refinery hit by Ukrainian Navy Neptune missiles on 31 May, and the broader Black Sea-to-Donbas fuel artery that Ukraine has degraded systematically.

The result is fuel shortages in Russian-occupied territory and in Russian border regions, with civilian fuel rationing visible in Crimea, and Kursk and Belgorod oblasts since spring 2026.