Ukraine To Mark Military Fuel To Curb Theft

Authored by Magyar Hírlap via ReMix,

Gasoline and petrol supplied to the Ukrainian army will be marked with dyes in the hope that less fuel will be stolen and sold on the black market, the rbc.ua news portal reported on Saturday, citing a Telegram post from the Ministry of Defense.

According to the report, fuel suppliers to the armed forces will now paint gasoline red and petrol green. The Ministry of Defense is planning to organize the delivery of the marked fuel as early as next week. The painted gas oil and petrol will reach the troops at the end of November.

“The marking will allow identification and tracking of fuel purchased exclusively for the army and reduce the possibility of its illegal sale. In addition, the coloring will make it impossible for fuel to be misused for rationing,” a statement by the ministry read.

The dye is such that it is not possible to dilute a marked fuel so that the color disappears completely. The Ministry of Defense promises that the change will not change the price of diesel and petrol.

Although there have been some reports of fuel theft from the military so far, defense analysts suspect that theft is a widespread phenomenon in the Ukrainian Army: as much as 25 percent of the military equipment donated by other countries is estimated to end up on the black market.

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