The American president, , stated last night that, for the moment, he is not considering a deal that would allow Ukraine to obtain long-range Tomahawk missiles for use against Russia. The Republican has been reluctant to a plan for the United States to sell these weapons to NATO countries that would then transfer them to Ukraine, arguing that he does not want a war escalation.
His latest statements to the press aboard Air Force One indicate that he maintains his reticence, despite the fact that the stalemate in negotiations with Russia has made kyiv still . “No, not really,” Trump told reporters during his flight from Palm Beach, Florida, to Washington, when asked if he was considering a deal to sell the missiles. He added, however, that he might change his mind. Pure Trump.
The president and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte discussed the Tomahawk idea during their meeting at the White House on October 22. Rutte stated on Friday that the matter was under review and that the final decision rested with the United States.
Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 kilometers, enough to hit targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow. The Ukrainian president, , has requested the missiles, but the Kremlin has warned against any supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
Ukraine has been seeking Tomahawk missiles to carry out long-range strikes against Russia, but even so, without them, it has managed to carry out a successful campaign using its own drones and missiles against Russian military and strategic targets, such as oil depots and refineries. A Ukrainian drone attack hit the Russian Black Sea oil port of Tuapse on Sunday, causing a fire and damaging two ships, according to Russian authorities. Russian airports in nearby regions also had to be closed.
Oil and the battlefield
On the other hand, Turkey’s main oil refiners are also already buying more non-Russian crude in response to the latest Western sanctions against Russia, citing two sources with direct knowledge of the matter and other sources in the sector. Türkiye is one of the main buyers of Russian crude, along with China and India, but refiners are following India’s lead and reducing their purchases.
One of the largest Turkish refineries, (STAR), owned by the Azeri company SOCAR, recently acquired four shipments of crude oil from Iraq, Kazakhstan and other non-Russian producers, with arrival scheduled for December, according to sources. This represents between 77,000 and 129,000 barrels per day (bpd) of non-Russian supply, depending on the size of the shipment, according to Reuters calculations. In contrast, Russian crude accounted for virtually all of the STAR refinery’s crude input in October and September, which amounted to about 210,000 bpd, according to trading data. SOCAR declined to comment, the agency reported.
The other major Turkish refiner, Tupras, was increasing purchases of non-Russian crude, according to two sources. Tupras is also likely to soon completely eliminate imports of Russian crude at one of its two main plants in Turkey in order to maintain fuel exports to Europe without violating upcoming EU sanctions, the same sources indicated. Reuters reported that Tupras did not respond to a request for comment.
Against this backdrop, Ukraine deployed special forces to the besieged eastern city of Ukraine this weekend in an attempt to repel an intense Russian offensive involving thousands of soldiers, kyiv’s supreme commander said. Pokrovsk, known as , lies on a major supply route for the Ukrainian military and has been in Moscow’s sights for more than a year as Russia pushes to control the entire eastern Donetsk region.
At least 200 Russian soldiers had penetrated Pokrovsk’s defenses, kyiv reported last week, while the Institute for the Study of War assessed that others were approaching the city in a pincer maneuver. In his evening speech on Sunday, President Zelensky spoke of the fighting in Pokrovsk and that it “will result in the destruction of the occupiers.”
The president, who has been pressing his allies to acquire more air defense systems to counter Russian attacks, announced on Sunday that Ukraine had strengthened its air defense network with the support of Germany. “We have strengthened the component of our Ukrainian air defense,” Zelensky declared, referring to advanced American-made air defense systems. Without offering further details, the Ukrainian leader expressed his gratitude to Germany and its chancellor, .
Russian drones and missiles launched into Ukraine have killed at least six people, including two children, and left tens of thousands without power, authorities said Sunday. Russian forces attacked the Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa regions, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine said. The deceased children were two boys aged 11 and 14, declared the Human Rights Commissioner of Ukraine, Dmytro Lubinets. The Russian attacks also left the entire eastern Donetsk region without power, as well as nearly 58,000 homes in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, its governors said. Ukraine’s Vostok Army Group said some of its troops were killed in one of the Russian attacks on Dnipropetrovsk.
