kudupinter – Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump claims Moscow is carrying out secret underground nuclear weapons tests

Ukrainian military chief has said his troops were battling “multi-thousand” enemy forces in key frontline town Pokrovsk in the Donetsk oblast.

Oleksandr Syrskyi said elite special forces had been deployed to defend key supply lines facing Russian fire.

Russia has been trying to capture Pokrovsk, dubbed “the gateway to Donetsk”, since mid-2024 in its campaign to control the entirety of Donetsk, a Ukrainian province it claims to have annexed.

The city, home to 70,000 people before the war, has been all but completely destroyed and depopulated.

Capturing Pokrovsk would be the most important Russian territorial gain inside Ukraine since Moscow took the ruined city of Avdiivka in early 2024 after one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

Kyiv said this week it had landed a helicopter with a team of special forces in Pokrovsk in a mission to halt the Russian advance. Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday its troops had killed all 11 members of that Ukrainian special forces team.

A Ukrainian military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied that the special forces had been killed and said the operation was continuing.

The ongoing war in Ukraine is creating “significant risks” to the US economy and is costing American firms billions in lost opportunities, a report by influential economists has warned.

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity paper by Daniel J. Mitchell and Robert O’Quinn also claims that the continuation of the conflict threatens the US dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.

Russia and China want to end this so-called “exorbitant privilege” that sees most countries use the dollar for international trade and are using the war and trade tensions to undermine America’s position, the report argues.

The analysis also highlights a staggering $520bn opportunity for American firms in rebuilding Ukraine, alongside reclaiming $100bn in lost energy ventures like ExxonMobil’s Arctic projects.

Donald Trump said for now, he is not considering a deal that would allow Ukraine to obtain long-range Tomahawk missiles for use against Russia.

Without promising, Trump has been okay with the US to sell Tomahawks to Nato nations that would transfer them to Ukraine, saying he does not want to escalate the war.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has long requested the missiles, but the Kremlin has warned against any provision of Tomahawks to Ukraine.

“No, not really,” Trump told reporters as he flew to Washington from Palm Beach, Florida, when asked whether he was considering a deal to sell the missiles. He added, however, that he could change his mind.

His latest comments to reporters aboard Air Force One indicate that he remains reluctant.

Trump and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte discussed the Tomahawk idea when they met at the White House on 22 October. Rutte said on Friday that the issue was under review and that it was up to the United States to decide.

Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500km (1,550 miles), long enough to strike deep inside Russia, including Moscow.

Kyiv is preparing for new drone and long-range strikes on Russian energy infrastructure that could lead to widespread blackouts in Russia, Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s drone systems forces, said yesterday.

The attacks would force Russian regions to adapt to disruptions in power supply, Brovdi wrote on Facebook.

“Blackouts are not scary. They’re just a bit inconvenient… The birds of the drone systems forces, together with other components of Ukraine’s deep strike capabilities, promise you a rapid, if somewhat forced, adaptation,” he said, referring to drones as “free Ukrainian birds”.

The drone force commander said Russia would increasingly face fuel shortages as gas and oil reserves were “burning fast”.

President Donald Trump said he was not really considering giving Ukraine long-range Tomahawk missiles.

Asked by a reporter aboard Air Force One if he was not considering providing the weapons to Ukraine, Trump responded: “No, not really.”

In October, Trump said he would provide Kyiv with Tomahawks. He told reporters on Air Force One “We’ll see… I may”. The missiles would be “a new step of aggression” in Ukraine’s war with Russia, he said.

Russia used nearly 1,500 attack drones, 1,170 guided aerial bombs, and more than 70 missiles of different types against Ukraine in the last week alone, President Zelensky has said.

He said in a post on X: “Almost every night, Russia strikes our people with various types of weapons.”

“It is clear that Moscow aims to inflict harm primarily on our people. That is why we are actively working to ensure reliable support for our energy sector this winter,” he added.

Trump seems to be losing ground with voters over the mixed results of his peacemaking efforts, which have so far yielded a shaky ceasefire in Gaza and have failed to resolve the war in Ukraine despite his promise to do so in a single day.