Russia pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles and Ukraine sent hundreds of drones towards Moscow yesterday (22 October), as the warring sides kept up a barrage of attacks despite the latest US push to end the conflict.
US President Donald Trump said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had restored Ukraine's Starlink access, one of the issues linked to a rift between Washington and Kyiv that has cast doubt on US support for Ukraine.
Ukraine said Russia fired at least 21 ballistic missiles in three waves. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said three carried cluster munitions — "bomblets" that disperse over a wide area and are banned by many countries because of the danger to civilians. Russia's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russia said Ukraine launched 630 drones towards Moscow during the night.
The two sides held an exchange of war dead, with Moscow handing over 252 bodies and Ukraine handing over 25, according to the Belta state news agency in neighboring Belarus. Such exchanges have accompanied moves towards talks in the past.
Putin: Ensuring security for Russia, Ukraine, Europe
Russian President Vladimir Putin, interviewed on Russian television a day after meeting US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, confirmed that he will resume US-mediated talks with Ukraine next month.
Putin said the aim of the talks was to ensure the security of Ukraine and Russia after the conflict was resolved. Witkoff, he said, had stressed that discussions had to extend to "the architecture of European security."
"And I agree with that too. Well, let's see how things develop in the coming days."
Zelenskiy said negotiations, which would be the first since February, would take place early in November.
Trump, in comments on Starlink, declined to say whether he had spoken to Musk about restoring the service for Ukraine.
Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had called Musk and asked him to lift restrictions on Ukraine's use.
"I don't want to comment on it, whether I called or whether somebody else called ... The bottom line—he put it back," Trump told reporters.
Ukraine uses Starlink for battlefield communications and drone operations. Restricting the service hampered the country's attack and air defence drone missions against Russia.
Speaking earlier alongside Finland's prime minister, Zelenskiy said speed on Starlink systems had not been restored for Ukraine.
"We are tackling that," Zelenskiy said, adding he hoped to discuss the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A person familiar with the Starlink issue said the problem was continuing, with the same curbs largely remaining in place.
Some drone units report reaching speeds of 200 kph (125 mph) with drones, but otherwise the picture was unchanged, he said. "The main problem is that we have no official explanation of what's going on," he said.
Rift between Washington and Kyiv
In more than a week of differences between Washington and Kyiv, Trump has repeatedly rebuked Ukraine for attacking Russian oil refineries while saying little about far deadlier Russian attacks on Ukraine. He called for Zelenskiy to be replaced and said Russia's actions in Ukraine have been "fine."
Zelenskiy, who long avoided any criticism of the Trump administration, has increasingly pushed back against what he describes as a shift towards sympathy with Moscow.
On Thursday, Zelenskiy snapped back at Witkoff for saluting Putin as a "humanitarian" during his visit to Russia, when the US envoy thanked Putin captured by Russian forces in Ukraine.
"Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian 'humanitarians' since yesterday evening," Zelenskiy posted on X. "They used 21 missiles. Unfortunately, numerous sites across the city have been hit and damaged."
Zelenskiy's meeting with Witkoff was aimed in part at repairing frayed relations with Washington after Trump announced a deal to buy Russian diesel and lifted sanctions on Moscow.
Kyiv says Washington failed to provide early-warning data on Russian missile launches, throttled the SpaceX satellite system used to guide Ukrainian drones, and withheld missile defence systems bought on Ukraine's behalf by Europeans. Washington denies shifting policies to hamper Ukrainian forces.
After meeting Zelenskiy and European and NATO officials in Oslo this week, Witkoff spoke of "some degree of momentum," but the Kremlin expressed doubts.
"The Americans sensed some new nuances (in Oslo) and told us about this. But these nuances, so to speak, do not entirely satisfy us," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Thursday.
A senior Russian official, briefed on the Putin-Witkoff talks, said they were relatively short and not substantive. The American brought proposals drafted in Oslo and handed them to Putin for review, the person said.
Another source close to the Kremlin said the US proposals included a scenario where Ukraine would cede its Donbas region to Russia in return for receiving a guarantee of its future security from NATO.
Moscow has repeatedly said it would not end fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, limits the size of its forces, and is permanently barred from forming alliances.
Ukraine dismisses Russia's conditions as a demand for capitulation that would leave it defenceless.
Attacks in many regions
Zelenskiy said two people were killed and 34 injured, including five children, in overnight attacks on a dozen Ukrainian regions.
Regional officials said a Russian strike on a market in Lozova, near the northeastern city of Kharkiv, killed two people and injured 36. Three were killed in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, and one more in the nearby Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russia said it carried out a "massive strike" overnight on port infrastructure in Ukraine's Odesa region, as well as on vessels used by the Ukrainian military.
In Russia, two people were wounded near Moscow by drones launched overnight towards the capital, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. Most of the drones were downed at long range, he added.