According to the Minister of Economy, Yulia Sviridenko, the Cabinet of Ministers has decided to abandon the state regulation of fuel prices. She announced this during a national TV translation on May 17.
“Today we discussed with market operators, and as a result agreed that the state will suspend price regulation so that market operators can fill the market” with the necessary and available resources from Europe and elsewhere, she said.
Sviridenko added that the government expects that the marginal prices for diesel fuel will be no more than Hr 58 and for gasoline, no more than Hr 52.
“If the operators going to abuse honest competition, the government will impose sanctions. We are going to monitor the situation daily,” Sviridenko stressed.
The Minister hopes that this decision will reduce the queues at gas stations and restore balance in the market in the coming weeks.
Ukraine has experienced a significant shortage of fuel after Russian rocket attacks on the Kremenchuk oil refinery and 15 oil depots.
In early May, the government raised the marginal levels of trade markup to the average retail price for diesel fuel sold at gas stations from Hr 5 to 7 per liter, gasoline from Hr 4.55 hryvnia to Hr 6.5 hryvnia per liter. After that, the maximum prices at gas stations increased to Hr 37.7 hryvnia per liter of gasoline and Hr 42.6 hryvnias per liter of diesel. These government regulations and Russian attacks resulted in a huge fuel deficit in Ukraine.
On May 16 Interfax-Ukraine reported that the Minister of Infrastructure Oleksandr Kubrakov had discussed with U.S. Chargé affairs Kristina Kvien and representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine ways to resolve Ukraine’s current fuel shortages.
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