Russia continued to pound Ukraine with missiles and drones, killing civilians and damaging residential buildings and energy sites, as Kyiv described disruptions to the satellite communications of US company SpaceX, crucial to the country's defense, as a deliberate "operation."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the October 17 barrage "one of [Russia's] largest attacks on Ukraine's energy sector," adding that more than 15 "critical power generation and transmission facilities" were targeted across the country.
The worst-hit areas included Lutsk, Rivne, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsya, Shepetivka, Slavuta, and Netishyn, he wrote on X. "Energy facilities in the Kharkiv, Kyiv, Dnipro, and other regions were also hit."
According to Ukraine's air force, Russia launched four Kalibr cruise missiles and 332 attack drones, including 31 jet-powered drones, as well as Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles and Kh-22/32 cruise missiles, over the preceding 24 hours.
"The Russians have scaled up their anti-energy operation and are trying to stretch our reserves and repair capabilities as thin as possible," Zelenskyy added.
During previous wartime winters, Russia had increasingly targeted Ukraine's energy and civilian infrastructure, leaving thousands without heat or electricity amid freezing temperatures in an effort to force Kyiv into accepting its hard-line demands to end the long-running war.
Despite last week's announcement of an energy cease-fire between Ukraine and Russia by US President Donald Trump, who made ending Russia's war on Ukraine a priority when he began his current term in January 2025, Moscow has shown no intention of changing its tactics.
On October 16, speaking at what Russian media said was a command post, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country's forces to continue their "massive and coordinated strikes against enemy targets."
A day after Putin's latest order to the Russian military, a Russian air strike in the Korabelnyi district of Ukraine's southern city of Kherson killed a 64-year-old emergency medical services driver, regional military administration head Yaroslav Shanko said.
In Slovyansk, in the eastern Donetsk region, Russian forces struck a residential neighborhood with FAB-250 aerial bombs in the early hours of the morning, hitting two apartment buildings, according to local authorities. One person was killed and 10 others were wounded in the attack, four of whom were hospitalized.
Eight apartment buildings were damaged, two of them partially destroyed. A total of 16 people were wounded in Slovyansk over the past 24 hours, including a 17-year-old girl. Vehicles and municipal equipment were also damaged.
The strikes also placed further strain on Ukraine's electricity system. National grid operator Ukrenergo announced emergency power cuts in several regions, saying that previously published outage schedules would not apply in areas affected by the measures.
Energy workers were working to restore supplies, and authorities urged consumers who still had electricity to use it sparingly.
In Vinnytsya, the regional capital in central Ukraine, Russian attacks left the city without electricity, Mayor Serhiy Morhunov said. Officials were assessing the extent of the damage, while critical infrastructure switched to backup power.
The latest barrage 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.
Earlier in the week, Musk said that any limitations on Ukraine's speed or use of Starshield were decided by the US military and the US president. Trump said on October 16 that he did not think either he or Musk was responsible for Ukraine's lack of Starlink access.
In his latest comments to reporters on October 17, Zelenskyy said Kyiv had sent vehicles equipped with Starlink to the European Union "to understand what was happening" and that there were no speed restrictions there. "We have the relevant evidence," he added.
Based on this evidence, the Ukrainian president concluded that Starlink speed restrictions applied only within Ukraine, calling it a "planned operation."
SpaceX had already once refused a request from Kyiv for access to the system for operations in the Black Sea near Russian-occupied Crimea, as well as other parts of the front line including Kherson and Donetsk.
Musk said at the time that the request was refused because the company "would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation."
Meanwhile, Ukraine's General Staff said on October 17 that Ukrainian forces remained in control of the eastern town of Dobropillia in the Donetsk region, rejecting a claim by Putin a day earlier that Russian forces had captured the town.
Kyiv also disputed Moscow's claim that Russian forces had seized more than 1,800 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory and 92 settlements since September 1, Reuters reported.
Among other demands for ending its invasion, Russia has repeatedly said Ukraine must hand over the part of the eastern Donetsk region that Moscow's forces have been unable to capture despite years of deadly fighting.
Ukraine says this is unacceptable, signaling that it could agree to a cease-fire that would leave the front lines in place as talks get under way.
