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MOSCOW, July 21 (Reuters) - Russian authorities are redirecting fuel supplies from Siberia and ramping up imports from Belarus to prevent shortages in the country's most populous and wealthiest Moscow region amid nationwide disruptions caused by Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries, industry sources said.
The fuel crunch has been felt in varying degrees across Russia's 11 time zones since May, when Ukraine stepped up attacks on oil refineries in an attempt to undermine Russian war efforts.
Russia's overall gasoline output fell to the equivalent of around 65% of average seasonal consumption in early July after undershooting demand for a couple of months, according to industry sources.
An attack on the Moscow Oil Refinery in mid-June caused fuel shortages and long lines at filling stations, but supplies in the Russian capital, home to the political and cultural elite, and the wider Moscow region stabilised by mid-July, according to regional fuel traders and Reuters witnesses, with ample availability of gasoline and diesel for cars.
The Moscow region is home to 22 million people, or more than one-sixth of country's total population. Since Soviet times, authorities have prioritised supplies of various goods to the capital.
The Energy Ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment on fuel supplies to the Moscow region.
Russia-annexed Crimea is now the worst-affected region. The peninsula has suspended tourism-related activities for children, introduced fuel rationing and declared curbs on social life, such as shorter working hours for shops and cafes.
To replace lost gasoline volumes from the damaged refineries, shipments of motor gasoline produced in the Urals and Siberia, as well as imported supplies from Belarus, were redirected to the Moscow region, traders said.
One of the traders said the Achinsk refinery in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region has been supplying Moscow with fuel.
He estimated the additional fuel supplies to Moscow from other regions at several hundred thousand metric tons.
The Moscow region consumes around 6 million tons of gasoline per year. To meet the demand, Russia has also started importing fuel from India.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday Russia's domestic fuel market had partly stabilised, although the situation was still difficult in some regions.
(Reporting by Reuters, editing by Andrei Khalip)
