Inside Ukrainian offensive pushing Russia back - with Starlink playing a key role — SkimNews
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- Operation Vivaldi liberated 277 sq km in eastern Donbas over 95 days, blunting a Russian pincer threatening the Fortress Belt cities and freeing 16 settlements from Russian occupation.
- Ukraine's military claims 8,000 Russian casualties in Vivaldi and roughly 50,000 along the front in September; the Institute for the Study of War says pro-Russian military bloggers acknowledged the advances, while no Russian official has and Moscow's MOD insists it is only "repelling attacks" near Lyman.
- Starshield, the military version of Elon Musk's Starlink network, saw restrictions imposed without warning during the offensive — Musk and media reports suggest the order may have come from the White House, alarming Ukrainian commanders who depend on it for interceptor and mid-range strike drones.
- President Zelensky said he felt "betrayed" by Trump this week; Trump called Zelensky harder to deal with than Putin and blamed Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil refineries for rising prices, while Ukraine counters the US-Israeli war against Iran is the cause.
- Revenge Brigade forces used drones and remote-controlled explosive vehicles to lead assaults for the first time, dropping explosives behind Russian lines and prompting 250 Russian surrenders.
- In Karpivka, 61-year-old Volodymyr Zamota survived eight months alone as the village's last resident after his neighbors fled the 2025 Russian advance, finding a settlement "almost completely destroyed" upon liberation.
Why it matters: Ukraine's 277-square-kilometer gain from Operation Vivaldi reversed recent Russian momentum in the Donbas, but the offensive exposed Kyiv's structural vulnerability: battlefield gains now depend on Starshield connectivity that can be restricted without warning and on US goodwill that Trump has publicly withdrawn.
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