Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian strikes targeted power sites in multiple regions, leaving tens of thousands of households without electricity, as Ukrainian and Russian officials reported civilian deaths following overnight drone attacks on October 18.
Zelenskyy said Russia had carried out 76 attacks on Ukraine's energy and oil and gas sectors in the week since US President Donald Trump unilaterally announced an energy cease-fire on his social media.
Trump, who made ending Russia's war on Ukraine a priority when he began his current term, said on October 11 that he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to observe a weeklong pause in attacks on energy infrastructure amid freezing weather in Ukraine.
A few days later, however, Putin ordered the Russian military to continue its "massive and coordinated" strikes against targets in Ukraine.
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Exclusive: A Russian Blueprint For A Cold, Dark Winter In Ukraine"Over the past week, Russia launched nearly 2,700 attack drones, 1,700 guided aerial bombs, and 66 missiles at Ukraine, most of them ballistic missiles," Zelenskyy wrote on social media on October 18.
Accusing Moscow of seeking to plunge Ukraine into a nationwide blackout, Zelenskyy wrote on social media: "Russia is not taking steps toward peace."
He added that just overnight power stations were targeted in the Vinnytsya, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskiy, and Odesa regions, while local authorities reported power outages following the strikes.
Moscow has previously sought to pressure Kyiv into accepting its hard-line demands by attacking the country's energy infrastructure and leaving thousands without heat or electricity amid freezing temperatures.
On October 18, Russian attacks killed at least two people and injured several others across the country, Ukrainian officials said.
In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhya, a 27-year-old woman was killed and two people were injured, including a 6-year-old girl, according to the regional military administration. The attacks damaged two apartment buildings, 18 cars, and an educational institution.
In the central city of Poltava, a Russian drone attack killed one woman and injured four other people, the head of the city's military administration, Vitaliy Dyakivnych, said on Telegram. Nine residential buildings were damaged, some by falling drone debris.
Ukraine's Air Force said Russia had launched 180 combat drones during the overnight attacks, of which 152 were intercepted. Impacts were recorded at 20 locations, it said.
Russia Reports Casualties, Infrastructure Damage
With a fifth wartime winter approaching, Russian strikes on Ukraine have become a daily occurrence.
Since this year, however, Kyiv has increasingly responded to Russian attacks with a campaign of long-range strikes targeting military and energy sites inside Russia and middle-range strikes targeting its key logistics in Ukraine's occupied eastern and southern regions.
On October 18, one person was killed and five injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's second-largest city of St. Petersburg, said the city's governor, Aleksandr Beglov.
Fires broke out at the St. Petersburg oil terminal, an oil depot, and industrial warehouses, the governor reported, adding that 12 apartment buildings were also damaged.
Russian e-commerce company Ozon said a drone struck one of its logistics facilities in St. Petersburg, causing a fire. Employees were evacuated, and no one was injured at the facility, the company said.
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Ukrainian Drones Hit Russian Oil Depot, Warehouse In St Petersburg
The VK Internet company said its data center in the Leningrad region had also been targeted by drones, but its services remained available to users as normal.
A drone struck a cable-stayed bridge forming part of St. Petersburg's Western High-Speed Diameter highway. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
The attacks also caused power disruptions in parts of the region. Two transformer substations in Yanino were reportedly disconnected, while operations at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport were disrupted.
Russia's Defense Ministry said air defense units had downed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight. The figure could not be independently verified.
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How Ukraine's Strikes On Data Centers Disrupted Taxis, Shopping, And Business In Russia And BeyondDrone attacks also disrupted air travel across Russia. More than 350 flights were delayed or canceled at Moscow's four airports overnight on October 17, as authorities imposed restrictions amid reported Ukrainian drone attacks on the Moscow region.
The figures were based on airport departure and arrival boards reviewed by the independent Russian outlet Meduza.
Sheremetyevo was the worst affected, with 143 flights canceled and 53 delayed. Vnukovo recorded 55 cancellations and 113 delays, while Domodedovo reported 59 delayed flights. Some flights bound for Moscow were diverted to other cities, including St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian air defenses had destroyed 75 drones heading toward the capital. Russia's Defense Ministry said more than 600 drones had been destroyed or intercepted across the country overnight, Interfax reported.
Airports in Penza, Saratov, and Sochi also suspended operations.
Kyiv Says Starshield Connections Still Limited
The latest barrage on Ukraine came as disruptions to the Starshield satellite system, the military-grade version of the Starlink service run by Elon Musk's SpaceX, left Ukraine particularly vulnerable earlier in the week.
On October 17, Kyiv said the speed of Starshield connections across Ukrainian territory remained significantly limited, causing instability in battlefield communications, medium-range strikes, and the operation of interceptor drones.
"The shortage of air defense systems, combined with the lack of confirmation that Starshield's full operational capabilities have been restored, creates additional challenges for Ukraine in protecting critical infrastructure against Russian aerial attacks," Denys Sienik, Ukraine's charge d'affaires to the United States, told RFE/RL.
"With colder weather approaching and winter drawing nearer, we fully understand the deliberate nature of Russia's strategy: to systematically damage Ukraine's energy infrastructure and leave civilians without essential services," he added.
On October 17, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected claims that the United States had deliberately restricted Ukraine’s access to Starlink, the satellite Internet service operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
"No one at the White House ordered anyone to slow down Internet or slow down speed so that certain drones couldn’t use it," he told reporters on October 17 as he prepared to depart for Central Asia, calling reports of US involvement "categorically false."
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Rubio Travels To Central Asia As US Seeks Deeper Trade And Security Ties In RegionRubio said his understanding was that Starlink's performance had returned to its previous level. Ukraine had used the commercial service to support drone operations.
He also questioned the Ukrainian president's account of the incident, saying he was "not sure Zelenskyy knows what he's talking about."
Rubio distinguished Starlink from Starshield, a separate defense-oriented satellite system used by the US military.
Ukraine does not currently have access to Starshield, he said, although Kyiv has requested it to conduct deep strikes inside Russia. The question of how the system might be used remains under discussion, Rubio added.
His comments highlighted the limits of Ukraine's access to US-linked military technology as tensions between Washington and Kyiv grow over the administration's approach to Russia.