Breaking News · October 18, 2026, 5:29 AM CDT
As reported by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian strikes overnight targeted power substations 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 announced an energy cease-fire.
Trump 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.
"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." Zelenskyy said that power stations were targeted in the Vinnytsya, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskiy, and Odesa regions in the overnight strikes.[1]
Video: Al Jazeera English, October 18, 2026 — “Trump waives Russia sanctions days before they were due as pressure on Zelenskyy grows”. Matched to this story by shared names and terms in its title; watch the original for full context.
On the record
"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." Rubio said his understanding was that Starlink's performance had returned to its previous level.[1]
The numbers in the reporting
How 5 outlets are reporting it
- Trump's Russia waiver draws instant bipartisan backlash (Axios)
- Graham Breaks With Trump Over Russia Sanctions Law Her Brother Championed (The New York Times)
- Zelenskyy Says Russia Seeking 'Total Blackout' In Ukraine After Latest Onslaught On Energy Facilities (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
- Trump’s decision to waive Russian sanctions outrages Congress, but no quick counter seen (AP News)
- Retiring Republicans bash Trump’s sanctions pullback (Politico)
What the official record says
We searched government, military, court and international-body sites for a statement or document on this story and found none published yet. The officials quoted in this report are quoted as the outlets reported them, so treat those statements as secondhand until the original is published.
How to Verify This Yourself
Each headline above links to that outlet’s own report. The quoted passages come from the first two of those reports that could be retrieved in full.
References
- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Zelenskyy Says Russia Seeking 'Total Blackout' In Ukraine After Latest Onslaught On Energy Facilities. ↩
Investigative methodology: this story was selected because 5 separate news organizations were reporting it at the same time. The quoted text is verbatim from the cited reports; nothing is paraphrased or added. Produced by scripts/breaking_news_monitor.py, not a language model.
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