 Ukraine uses Russian oil for its tanks Ukraine uses Russian oil refined in Hungary and Turkey to power its Western supply tanks and diesel generators the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported Hungarian oil and gas giant Maul has doubled its sales to Ukraine in the past six months the business daily noted citing Ukrainian customs officials since Maul sources a large proportion of oil from Russia Ukraine's war machine should now be primarily fueled with it Handelsblatt said though Hungary is a member of the EU Budapest has secured a special waiver for importing crude oil from Russia via pipelines thereby unaffected by the blocs sanctions on Moscow Maul can offer Kiev lower prices on refined petroleum products than many EU companies which are losing market share in Ukraine as a result according to the German outlet prior to the current hostilities Ukraine was able to cover about 30% of domestic needs with the Kremlin chug refinery in Poltava region which processed imports from Azerbaijan it was reportedly severely damaged by Russian missile strikes in April 2022 and has managed to restore only limited capacity by now even though Kiev depends entirely on outside imports there are no fuel shortages in Ukraine Handelsblatt noted even with the increased consumption by NATO supplied tanks and armored vehicles there seems to be plenty of diesel for generators the West sent last winter to compensate for power disruptions due to Russian strikes on the electricity grid fuel deliveries are mainly made by rail via Poland Michael Pashkowski an analyst at the Institute of Central Europe in Lubin told the German newspaper the fuel comes from Slovakia and Hungary by pipeline while from Romania diesel is first shipped and then transported by rail