Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are grappling with severe fuel shortages after Ukraine's drone campaign damaged key Russian oil refineries — including the Omsk facility, Russia's largest — and prompted Moscow to ban diesel exports, cutting off supplies that both landlocked Central Asian nations depend on almost entirely. Kyrgyzstan, which historically sourced roughly 95 percent of its petroleum products from Russia, has frozen domestic fuel prices, introduced subsidies, and banned its own fuel exports, while striking emergency deals with Belarus and China for modest quantities of jet fuel and diesel — far short of what it normally imports. Tajikistan is also struggling, with diesel shortages forcing public buses off roads in Khujand (the country's second-largest city) and fuel prices running well above historic norms, while regional alternatives remain limited: Kazakhstan, itself facing refinery maintenance and harvest-season demand, has renewed its own fuel export ban and shown little appetite to prioritise its neighbours over its domestic market.