(Bloomberg) -- Russia has been increasing fuel deliveries to its military units near and inside Ukraine, with shipments reaching the highest since the invasion as the Kremlin mobilizes its forces against Kyiv’s counteroffensive. 

Gasoline, diesel and jet fuel deliveries to the Russian Defense Ministry’s units in six regions bordering Ukraine as well as the annexed Donetsk and Luhansk regions rose to almost 220,000 tons in September, according to Bloomberg calculations based on an analysis of railway data. That’s about four times the volume of a year earlier and exceeds shipments in March, the first full month after the invasion. 

The figures include deliveries to four major airports in Russia’s southwest where civilian flights have been banned since the first day of the invasion at the end of February. 

The hike in Russian fuel deliveries to the regions comes as Ukraine presses forward with its most successful counteroffensive since the start of the war. Kyiv’s forces are threatening Russian positions in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions in the country’s northeast and east. In response, President Vladimir Putin’s ordered the partial mobilization of some 300,000 reservists last month.

The actual total of oil-product deliveries for military purposes in Ukraine could be even higher. The data doesn’t include fuel flows via pipelines, because the figures seen by Bloomberg don’t separate deliveries for civil and military purposes. 

The Russian regions in the vicinity of Ukraine’s territory have vast agricultural areas, but the increases in fuel deliveries seen this year greatly exceed the usual seasonal variations due to higher demand from farmers. 

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