Cars line up at a gas station in Kyiv. File photoMOSCOW, May 18.Vladimir Omelchenko, director of energy programs at the influential Ukrainian Razumkov Center, believes that the government's bet on strict regulation of fuel prices has failed. Earlier, Economy Minister Yulia Sviridenko said that the Ukrainian Cabinet was suspending regulation of fuel prices in the hope of saturating the market with gasoline and diesel fuel and removing the hype and would introduce sanctions against participants in the fuel market that will inflate prices.The Ukrainian minister said that there is a growing shortage of fuel in the country «The government's bet on strict price regulation has failed. The government promised us that fuel will appear at gas stations and everything will be as before, first until May 9, then May 15, but the situation is not improving. Apparently , the government realized that this method does not work, and decided to go for price deregulation,» Omelchenko said on the Ukraine 24 TV channel, commenting on the government's decision. According to him, the difficult situation on the Ukrainian fuel market, when it is almost impossible to fill a private car , will last until the end of hostilities, since «oil depots and a plant were bombed in the country, complicated logistics from European countries.» and noted that they are about 10 hryvnia (0.34 dollars) higher than the prices that the government previously set by administrative methods. In addition, Omelche The NGO believes that the Ukrainian state is currently unable to effectively punish speculators who continue to profit from the difficult situation with fuel. , said the Ministry of Finance of the country
