Ukraine advances in occupied Donetsk as Trump hands Putin diesel deal

Ukraine advances in occupied Donetsk as Trump hands Putin diesel dealUkraine’s ‘Operation Vivaldi’ reclaimed more occupied territory in Donetsk during a week when Trump sided with Russia.An artilleryman of the Special Rifle Police Battalion of Zaporizhia region sets up Starlink satellite internet system, at a position, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, near the front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine, October 16, 2026 [Reuters]Published On 16 Oct 2026The United States’s relationship with Ukraine came under extraordinary strain during the past week, as US President Donald Trump lifted some oil sanctions against Russia and was feared to have restricted Ukraine’s access to US intelligence and satellite services, hobbling its defences.“It is a pity we are losing … a strong partner,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told journalist Piers Morgan, speaking of the US.“It’s painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side,” he said. “This is not [the] right side of history.”Trump on October 9 invited Russia to sell 1.8 million tonnes of diesel to the global market by the end of the year, to help bring down transport prices.That effectively reversed the Lindsey Graham Act, which Trump had signed into law days earlier. The law gave him the ability to punish countries buying Russian oil with secondary sanctions.Ukraine’s partners did not share intelligence that five ballistic missiles were headed towards Kyiv on October 13, Zelenskyy said, without naming the US. Those missiles struck Kyiv’s Thermal Power Plant number 4, one of the capital’s biggest, resulting in power outages.Russia then pounded Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure on October 14, when Ukraine reported it had restricted use of SpaceX’s satellite navigation services, which it uses to defend itself.Over a 24-hour period, Russia launched 850 drones and 39 missiles, striking 30 energy targets across 19 regions of Ukraine, despite the fact that Trump had declared an energy ceasefire on October 11.“This level of blatant disregard for the United States by Russia has not been seen before,” Zelenskyy said.Starshield, the military element of the Starlink satellite network owned by SpaceX, capped Ukraine’s use of its navigation services at 160 km/h (100mph).A daughter of a killed woman, found under debris, reacts at a site of an apartment building damaged during a Russian jet drone strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, October 13, 2026 [Sofiia Gatilova/Reuters]This meant that Ukraine lost sight of its interceptors above that speed, making it difficult or impossible to stop Russian jet-powered Geran-4 drones, which fly at speeds exceeding 500 km/h (310mph).Six in 10 Russian drones are now jet-powered, Zelenskyy said.“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” wrote SpaceX owner Elon Musk.Starshield services had begun to return to normal on October 15, sources at Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said.Ukraine is so heavily targeted by Russian aerial strikes that an outage in its ability to navigate interceptors for a prolonged period could be ruinous.During September, its air force intercepted more than 4,700 drones and missiles of various kinds.Starshield is equally important for Ukraine’s ability to hobble Russian offensive operations. Ukraine has wrought havoc with Russian supply lines for months, striking fuel trucks, bridges, ammunition warehouses and air defences.During September alone, Ukraine’s military said it had struck 40 command posts and 50 logistics facilities.The Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine’s data showed that strikes fell from a daily average of 2,300 to 1,678 on October 14 and 1,053 on October 15.This was not the first such disruption of services under the Trump administration.The US had also stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine in March, helping Russia reclaim its Kursk region, which Ukraine had counter-invaded.Despite the setbacks this week, Ukraine has continued to win back territory.Its Third Army Corps concluded a fourth phase of Operation Vivaldi in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, reclaiming an additional 100sq km of territory (40sq miles), said Corps commander Andrii Biletskyi.That brought the operation’s gains to 275sq km (100sq miles) and 16 settlements since August, and brought Russia’s overall gains this year close to nil.The campaign was designed to push back against a Russian effort to seize the town of Lyman. A separate counteroffensive further south pushed back against an attempted Russian takeover of Dobropillya. Ukraine saw the two initiatives as an effort to surround the “fortress cities” of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in a pincer movement.Ukraine’s counteroffensives have drawn away Russian units directly facing Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, paralysing this part of the front.“Russian forces averaged around 14 attacks per day in the Sloviansk direction in August 2026, five in September 2026, and three per day thus far in October 2026,” wrote the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.“Russian forces averaged around three attacks per day in the Kramatorsk direction in August 2026, one in September 2026, and only an average of 0.3 thus far in October 2026,” the ISW said.“We are stopping all enemy attempts to advance or infiltrate,” said Zelenskyy. “Ukraine’s positions on the front remain strong, and this year they are the strongest they have been in a long time.”Zelenskyy said Russian forces outnumber Ukraine’s by six to eight times in parts of the front, and it appeared that they have recently received reinforcements.Robert Brovdi, the commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces of Ukraine, said the personnel increase “translates into a significant increase” in Russian casualties.During the first two weeks of October, Brovdi said, Russian casualties increased by 25 percent compared with the first two weeks in September and by almost 60 percent compared with the first two weeks in August.In Dobropyllia, the Russian casualties were higher than anywhere else on the front, he said, 43 percent above September’s rate and double the rate in August.Ukraine’s success is due in part to its production of domestically designed drones in partnership with European allies.Ukraine’s Defence Ministry’s orders in 2026 were higher by half than in 2025, it said, and delivery volumes were almost four times what they had been last year.While Ukraine respected Trump’s energy ceasefire for three days, it returned to striking Russian refineries on October 15.It also continued to strike non-energy targets throughout the week.Ukraine struck a facility manufacturing explosives and rocket fuel in Nizhny Novgorod on October 9, and a plant making additives for missile fuels in the Tver region.On October 15, it destroyed four Sukhoi fighters and damaged another two at the Borisoglebsk airfield in the Voronezh region.Ukraine also targeted three data centres owned by the Russian cloud services company Yandex, destroying or crippling those in Sasovo, Kaluga and Vladimir between October 8 and 11. It also struck a data centre owned by Sberbank on October 14.The strikes caused Russians to lose online payment and other services.