Ex-President Trump remarked this past Sunday that he was not actively contemplating supplying Ukrainian forces with advanced Tomahawk missiles. After being asked by a journalist aboard Air Force One, he replied, “No, not at the moment.” Recent reports had indicated the Pentagon informed the administration that U.S. stockpiles of Tomahawks were ample to allow this delivery.
While Ukraine has been seeking Tomahawk missiles to conduct far-reaching strikes against Russian targets, it has still managed to conduct a effective campaign using its own drones and rockets against Russian military and strategic targets, including oil depots and processing plants. This past Sunday, a Kyiv's drone attack targeted the port facility on the Black Sea, causing a blaze and damaging two ships, according to Moscow officials. Adjacent airfields in the area also had to be shut down.
Turkey's biggest oil refining facilities are increasing purchases of non-Russian crude in reaction to the latest international restrictions on Moscow, as reported by industry sources. The country is a significant purchaser of Russian crude, along with China and New Delhi, but processing companies are following India's lead in cutting back supplies.
A major Turkish refining plants, the STAR refinery, owned by Azerbaijani firm SOCAR, has recently purchased four cargoes of crude from Iraq, Kazakh, and other non-Russian producers for year-end arrival, according to insiders. These purchases represent roughly tens of thousands of barrels daily of alternative crude, depending on shipment volume. In contrast, oil from Russia made up virtually all of the STAR refinery's supply in October and September, amounting to approximately 210,000 barrels per day, based on market data. SOCAR declined to comment.
The other leading Turkish oil processor – Tupras – was also raising acquisitions of alternative grades of crude, according to two sources. Tupras was furthermore likely to in the near future completely eliminate Russian crude at one of its primary main domestic refineries to maintain petroleum shipments to Europe without breaching the EU’s upcoming sanctions. Tupras declined to comment to a request for a statement.
Kyiv has deployed elite troops to the embattled eastern city of Pokrovsk in an effort to push back an fierce Moscow's offensive comprising a large number of troops, according to Kyiv’s top commander. Pokrovsk, dubbed “the entrance to Donetsk,” lies on a major logistical line for the Ukrainian army and has been in Moscow’s crosshairs for over a year as Russia aims to seize the entire east Donetsk area.
At least two hundred Russian troops had penetrated the city's defences, Ukrainian officials said recently, while military experts concluded that additional forces were advancing on its perimeter in a pincer-shaped maneuver. In his nightly address on this past Sunday, the Ukrainian president spoke of the combat in Pokrovsk and “successes in the destruction of the invading forces.”
The president, who has been pushing his allies for more air defense systems to hold off Russia’s attacks, announced on Sunday that the country had strengthened its air-defence network with Berlin's assistance. “We've boosted the U.S.-made Patriot element of our Ukrainian air defence,” Zelenskyy said, mentioning the advanced U.S.-made defense systems. Not offering additional information, the Ukraine's leader specifically thanked Berlin and its chancellor, Friedrich Merz, for gratitude.
Russian unmanned aircraft and rockets targeting Ukraine killed no fewer than 6 individuals, among them 2 children, and cut electricity to tens of thousands of households, authorities reported on this past Sunday. Russian forces struck the Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa areas, according to the office of Ukraine’s chief prosecutor. The children were two boys of ages 11 and fourteen, said the nation's human rights commissioner. The attacks cut electricity to the whole eastern Donetsk region as well as almost 58 thousand households in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, their governors announced. Ukraine’s Eastern army group said some of its members were killed in one of the enemy attacks on Dnipropetrovsk.
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