The Russian invasion is driving up prices.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine continues this week, and the entire world is feeling its rippling effects. Russia is one of the largest provides of fuel in the entire world, delivering gas to most major first world countries. To punish them for their invasion of Ukraine, many countries have issued severe sanctions on the Russian fuel industry, as well as cut off fuel travel from Russian-owned pipelines.

Unfortunately, while these sanctions are crippling the Russian economy, the lowered access to fuel is causing fuel prices to spike around the world. Here in the United States, as of Sunday afternoon, the average cost of a gallon of gasoline at a typical gas station has exceeded $4. The current record for national gas price highs is $4.11, set back in 2008 during the recession, and according to analysts, we could surpass that record in a few months’ time.

“GasBuddy expects that gasoline prices will continue to rise in the days ahead, and could be just days away from setting a new all-time record high and continuing to rise through summer,” the fuel-savings app said in a public statement.

U.S. gasoline prices soar to highest since 2008 on Russia conflict -AAA https://t.co/eTu7esxLUm pic.twitter.com/tFi0EeJdkF

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 7, 2022

Currently, the US state with the highest gas prices is California, with costs averaging at $5.28 per gallon, though some stations in major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles saw per-gallon prices as high as $6.99.