Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Swipe for next article
Trump told reporters he was N’not really” considering a deal to sell Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, but could change his mind
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Donald Trump has said that Russia is carrying out “underground” nuclear weapons tests as he doubled down on his announcement last week that the US would restart their own nuclear testing.
Speaking to Norah O’Donnell on 60 Minutes, he said that “Russia’s testing, and China’s testing, but they don’t talk about it”, adding they were doing them “underground where people don’t know exactly what’s happening with the test.”
When Ms O’Donnell tried to clarify if he meant that Russia and China were definitely testing their nuclear weapons, he said: “Russia’s testing nuclear weapons.
“Russia did make– a little bit of a threat the other day when they said they were gonna do certain forms of a different level of testing.”
It comes after he has now backed away from the idea of giving Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for carrying out strikes inside Russia, at least for now. Trump has publicly toyed with the idea of providing the long-range missiles to Ukraine, saying that Volodymyr Zelensky would like him to add Tomahawks to Kyiv‘s arsenal. Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500km, enough to strike deep inside Russia, including Moscow.
Kyiv’s troops have advanced further near Dobropillia, north of Pokrovsk, Ukraine’s army chief has said.
It comes as the Russian Defence Ministry has claimed that its forces had advanced in the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and had carried out massive strikes overnight on Ukrainian military-industrial sites.
Ukraine’s military units are competing with each other by launching deadly drone attacks to earn points that can be used to buy more weapons.
The video game style rewards system is proving to be very popular, Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister said, with hundreds of units participating. Launched a year ago, it is now being expanded to reconnaissance, artillery and logistics operations, according to reports.
Read more here:
Russia wants to take the whole of the Donbas region, which comprises the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Ukraine still controls about 10% of Donbas – an area of about 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles) in western Donetsk.
Capturing Pokrovsk, dubbed “the gateway to Donetsk” by Russian media, and Kostiantynivka to its northeast which Russian forces are also trying to envelop, would give Moscow a platform to drive north towards the two biggest remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in Donetsk – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. It would also give Moscow its most important single territorial gain inside Ukraine since it took the ruined city of Avdiivka in early 2024.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Donbas is now legally part of Russia. Kyiv and most Western nations reject Moscow’s seizure of the territory as an illegal land grab. Some Western military analysts, like Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, say that capturing Pokrovsk would hand Russia an important win, especially if it can do it by the end of the year.
But though important for operational reasons, Lee says taking Pokrovsk would still leave Russia a lot of work to do when it came to taking control of the rest of Donetsk and the two important fortress cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.
The Tomahawk cruise missile has been in the US military’s inventory since the 1980s. While slow by missile standards, the cruise missile flies around 100 feet (about 30 meters) off the ground, making it harder to detect by defence systems.
The missile also boasts an impressive range of around 1,000 miles and precision guidance systems that make it the go-to weapon for striking targets that are deep inland or in hostile territory. The long-range nature of the missiles would put Moscow in Ukraine’s range, a significant threat to Russia.
Questions have been raised about how Tomahawks could be employed in Ukraine. They are launched almost exclusively from ships or submarines and Ukraine doesn’t possess a Navy with ships capable of carrying the 20-foot-long missile.
The US Army has been developing a platform to launch the missile from the ground, but some experts have that the capability was still far from ready, even for US forces.
Multiples countries in the alliance have reported incursions by drones into their airspace in recent months, James C. Reynolds reports.
Read more here:
China’s premier Li Qiang has met with Russia’s prime minister Mikhail Mishustin, according to Chinese state media.
Mishustin has arrived in China for a two-day visit that includes meetings with president Xi Jinping and premier Li Qiang.
Li has said that China and Russia are good “neighbours” with mutual trust, as he met Mishustin.
Estonia’s foreign affairs ministry has said that a Russian coast guard boat flying a Wagner mercenary flag was spotted near the country.
The country suggested that the display of a symbol of the mercenary group that rebelled against the Kremlin two years ago “confirms the fact that Russia’s ‘iron’ system is fracturing”.
The Wagner company, led by late oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, fought in some of the hardest battles against Ukraine before staging an uprising against Moscow in June 2023. Prigozhin later died in a mysterious plane crash months after agreeing an end to the rebellion.
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in