Ukraine keeps gaining ground in Donetsk as Trump eases pressure on Russian fuel

The story

Ukraine says its forces have taken back more land in the occupied Donetsk region, even as its relationship with the United States went through one of its roughest weeks of the war.

Andrii Biletskyi, who commands Ukraine's Third Army Corps, said the fourth phase of Operation Vivaldi recovered about 100 square kilometres. Since August the campaign has won back roughly 275 square kilometres and 16 settlements, which leaves Russia with almost nothing to show for its own advances this year. The push was aimed at stopping a Russian drive on the town of Lyman, while a separate counterattack farther south held off an attempt to take Dobropillia.

The pressure on the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk has eased sharply as a result. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, counted about 14 Russian attacks a day toward Sloviansk in August. So far in October that has fallen to about three a day.

The gains came against a difficult backdrop. On October 9 President Donald Trump invited Russia to sell 1.8 million tonnes of diesel on the world market before the end of the year to help bring down transport costs. That cut against a sanctions law on buyers of Russian oil that he had signed only days earlier.

Ukraine also lost part of its ability to guide interceptor drones when Starshield, the military side of the Starlink satellite network, capped its navigation services at 160 km/h. That made it very hard to stop Russia's jet powered drones, which fly at more than 500 km/h, on a night when Russia fired 850 drones and 39 missiles at energy sites in 19 regions. Elon Musk said any limits on Starshield are set by the US military and the president, and Trump has denied restricting Ukraine's access. Ukrainian defence officials said service began returning to normal on October 15.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "It's painful when President Trump chooses one side, not our side." Ukraine had held off striking Russian energy sites for three days under a ceasefire Trump declared on October 11, but went back to hitting Russian refineries on October 15.