Context: In Belarus, fuel prices increased by 4 kopecks on March 28 and will increase by another 3 kopecks next week. Belnaftakhim, a petrochemical concern, attributed this growth to the global rise in quotations for oil and oil products on the world market. This marks the most significant one-time price increase in recent years, as prices were typically raised incrementally over time, by 1-2 kopecks at a time. Meanwhile, gasoline in Belarus remains significantly cheaper than in the European Union because it is produced mainly from Russian oil, which is supplied at rates below world prices. Since April 1, Russia has imposed a complete ban on gasoline exports by producers to support the domestic market.
Amid rising fuel prices in Belarus, state TV channels reported on the rapid increase in gasoline prices in the United States and Europe. On March 24, 2026, the anchor of the CTV program Novosti 24 chasa discussed the “echo” of the Middle Eastern conflict in Germany.
“The German authorities were caught off guard by the fuel crisis hitting the country. Despite their best efforts, they have been unable to stop fuel prices from rising. Since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, the cost of gasoline and diesel has surpassed a record-high €2.50 per liter. On average, fuel prices rise by an additional 30-50 cents per day. This angers Germans because refueling in other European countries is much more cost-efficient.”
As of February 28, when the U.S. began its military operation against Iran, the cost of gasoline and diesel in Germany was about €1.8 per liter. Assuming prices were rising by 30 to 50 cents each day, the price of a liter of fuel should have been around €9 to €14 by the time the story was aired. In reality, nearly a month after the conflict began, prices were quite different: gasoline cost about €2.10 per liter, while diesel was around €2.30 per liter. In other words, the price of fuel has increased by 30 to 50 cents over the course of the entire month since the beginning of the war, not just in a single day.
A similar exaggeration appeared on the First Information Channel (News.by, owned by Belteleradiocompany). In the March 22, 2026 edition of Glavnyi efir, they said:
“In the U.S., the price of a gallon of gasoline has surpassed $7.5. For a suburban family, that means an additional $450 in monthly expenses.”
Indeed, such prices appeared in media reports, but only at individual gas stations in California. Some of them sold gasoline for $7 to $8 per gallon, and at one station, the price almost reached $9. However, these were isolated cases, not the national average.
At the time of publication, the U.S. average for gasoline is about $4 per gallon, compared to approximately $3 before the war. In other words, the real increase was about $1 per gallon.
The additional costs to the family were also overestimated. On average, a family in the United States uses about 87 gallons of gasoline every month. With the price increase of about a dollar per gallon, the additional cost is approximately $80, not $450.
Thus, both the CTV story on Germany and the First Information Channel piece on the United States relied on inflated estimates. In one case, a monthly fuel price increase was passed off as a daily increase. In another case, isolated extremely high prices were presented as the country’s average gasoline price. Consequently, fuel price increases abroad appeared much more dramatic on Belarusian TV than the actual data indicated.