New lethal front at the pump

Employees setting up anti-drone netting before closing their petrol station for the night in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. Ukraine’s petrol stations have become sites of anxiety and fear as Russia uses drones to carry out a systematic and deadly campaign of retaliation for Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries. — Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

MOST have sandbags at the entrance. Many have shrapnel scars and scorch marks, or have been reduced to burned-out husks. All across Ukraine, petrol stations tell the tale of a lethal new front in the war with Russia.

Russian forces have attacked nearly 250 Ukrainian petrol stations in recent months, in what officials, analysts and operators say is a systematic and deadly campaign of retaliation for Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries.