Russian Nightly Strikes Kill at Least 15 as Intelligence and Energy Truce Disputes Deepen

Nightly Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine killed at least 15 people and wounded dozens in the days leading up to Oct. 15, as Kyiv pointed to missing satellite warning data and a proposed halt to strikes on energy sites failed to take hold, according to Al Jazeera.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Ukraine's partners had not provided intelligence data from NATO early-warning satellites. President Donald Trump denied that Washington had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine.

Those satellites detect Russian ballistic missile launches within seconds by picking up the rockets' thermal flames. The warnings can give Ukrainian authorities up to 10 minutes to sound air raid sirens and send emergency text messages telling people to go to bomb shelters.

Former deputy head of Ukraine's general staff Ihor Romanenko told Al Jazeera that the lack of satellite data significantly affects air-defence effectiveness and response time. Kyiv relies heavily on U.S. intelligence for early warnings of missile strikes and for targeting Russian military sites, according to Reuters.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine received no warning before a Russian missile attack on Kyiv on Oct. 13 that killed two people, Reuters reported. A separate hours-long missile and drone attack focused primarily on Kyiv and Kharkiv damaged 30 energy facilities, Zelenskyy said, while Russian strikes killed three people and damaged dozens of power facilities, according to Reuters.

The debate over warnings has run alongside a disputed proposal for an energy ceasefire, meaning no mutual strikes on energy infrastructure. On Sunday, Trump announced such an arrangement covering Russian oil refineries and fuel depots and Ukrainian power and heating stations, and wrote on social media that it was effective immediately and that both parties had agreed.

Kyiv described Trump's announcement as a surprise. Moscow declined to say whether it backed the proposal and continued striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure. Russia has carried out more than 200 strikes on Ukraine's electricity generation and transmission facilities, and recently launched a targeted strike on a power plant in Kharkiv that caused further damage to the energy system.

Zelenskyy had said on Oct. 11 that Ukraine was ready to refrain from striking Russian energy infrastructure and counted on the same readiness from Russia. Kyiv paused strikes on Russian refineries for three days before resuming them on Wednesday, when Ukrainian drones attacked refineries in Russia's Saratov and Ryazan regions, according to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksander Novak.

The Ukrainian presidency has reported that Russia used around 1,450 aerial bombs, more than 1,640 attack drones and 75 missiles of various types in attacks including on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.