In the week since the announcement of the energy ceasefire, Russia has attacked Ukraineʼs energy and oil and gas sectors 76 times. Last night alone, substations in Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, and Odesa regions were under attack.
This was reported by the President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Russians also attacked residential buildings. Two people were killed and 12 others were injured, including two children. In the morning, Russian troops struck an agricultural enterprise in Volyn.
Over the past week, Russia has launched nearly 2 700 strike drones, 1 700 aerial bombs, and 66 missiles, most of them ballistic, into Ukraine.
What preceded
On October 11, the US President Donald Trump reported an energy ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. On October 12, Axios reported that Trump meant a halt to mutual strikes on refineries. On the same day, FT reported that the US was threatening to block arms sales to Ukraine and intelligence sharing over its strikes on Russian refineries.
Ukraine agreed and did not attack Russian oil refining until October 15. Instead, on October 12, the Russian Federation attacked six Ukrainian energy facilities in one day, and on the night of October 14, the Russians struck all three thermal power plants in Kyiv.
In both cases, Ukraine did not receive warnings from its partners about planned ballistic strikes — Ukraine usually receives such warnings from the US. At the same time, Donald Trump himself denied that the US had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine.
In addition, on the night of October 14, “SpaceX” without warning restricted the operation of “Starshield” terminals, the military version of “Starlink” satellite communications. The “SpaceX” founder Elon Musk said that the “Starshield” systems are controlled by the US government, so their use is determined by the US military, and the final decision is made by the president. The White House called the “Starshield” restrictions in Ukraine a “technical malfunction”.
On October 15, Babelʼs sources in the Ministry of Defense reported that the work of “Starshield” in motion has already been restored and is ongoing. At the same time, Volodymyr Zelensky noted the next day that the networkʼs work has not yet been fully restored. He separately noted that due to speed restrictions, Ukraine has lost the ability to shoot down “Shahed” jets.
Axios wrote on October 17 that Elon Musk proposed limiting the speed of “Starlink” for Ukraine, and Donald Trump agreed.
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