Firefighters battle a blaze set by Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, October 5, 2025

EA on TVP World: Will Trump Send Tomahawk Missiles to Ukraine?

Wednesday’s Coverage: Trump — Putin “Has Got to Settle This War”

UPDATE 1841 GMT:

India has rejected Donald Trump’s claim that Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to stop purchases of Russian oil.

Indian officials said there was “no telephonic conversation between PM Modi and US President Trump yesterday”.

Trump claimed on Wednesday:

I was not happy that India was buying oil, and he has assured me today that they will not be buying oil from Russia. You know, you can’t do it immediately. It’s a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over with soon.

UPDATE 1834 GMT:

Donald Trump says he will meet Vladimir Putin in Hungary’s capital Budapest next week, following his discussion with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House on Friday.

Following a phone call with Putin, Trump posted on Truth Social that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead initial discussions.

“President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed-upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ war between Russia and Ukraine to an end,” he declared.

The call with Putin was Trump’s first contact since his red-carpet hosting of the Russian leader in Alaska on August 15.

Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said the Kremlin initiated the call. Putin told Trump that the supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine would damage US-Russia ties.

Ushakov said Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will speak with Secretary of State Rubio before the Putin-Trump summit.

UPDATE 1336 GMT:

Russia fired 320 drones and 37 missiles across Ukraine early Thursday morning, targeting energy infrastructure.

Air defenses downed 283 drones but only five missiles. The remaining munitions struck their targets. They were mainly in the Kharkiv region in the northeast and the Poltava region in central Ukraine, but power outages are reported from eight regions.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky commented:

Putin has turned a deaf ear to everything the world says, so the only language that can still get through to him is the language of pressure – pressure through sanctions and pressure through long-range capabilities. Strong decisions are possible, decisions that can help. And this depends on the United States, on Europe, on all partners whose strength directly determines whether the war will be ended.

UPDATE 1143 GMT:

The Trump Administration will impose a tariff on China over its purchases of Russian oil if European countries do so as well, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told journalists on Wednesday.

“President Trump has instructed the ambassador and myself to tell our European allies that we would be in favor of whether you would call it a ‘Russian oil tariff’ on China or a ‘Ukrainian victory tariff’ on China,” Bessent said. “But our Ukrainian or European allies have to be willing to follow.”

The Trump Administration has levied 50% tariffs on India, Russia’s second-largest customer after China, in part over the purchases of Moscow’s oil.

It had not mentioned tariffs on Beijing previously, but US-China trade talks have run into trouble. Donald Trump has ordered 100% tariffs on the Chinese from November 1, citing Beijing’s export controls on rare earth minerals.

See also EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Trump’s Trade War With China; Gaza and A Tantrum Over Nobel Peace Prize; The Qatar Connection

Bessent said 85 of 100 US senators are ready to give Trump the authority to “put up to 500% tariffs on China for the purchase of Russian oil”.

UPDATE 0917 GMT:

Ukraine’s State gas provider Naftogaz confirms that “operation of a number of critically important facilities has been suspended” after this morning’s Russian strikes, the sixth set since the start of October.

The company said it is trying to cover the suspension with imports; however, it is urging “everyone to use gas as sparingly as possible. Today, every cubic meter saved counts.

UPDATE 0749 GMT:

The UK has sanctioned Russia’s two largest oil producers, Rosneft and Lukoil, four Chinese oil terminals, and more than 40 Russian “shadow fleet” tankers transporting blacklisted oil exports.

Rosneft and Lukoil together export 3.1 million barrels of oil per day.

The UK Government said the “strongest sanctions yet” aim at “choking off energy revenues” for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We are sending a clear signal: Russian oil is off the market,” Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said.

The restrictions on Rosneft and Lukoil include asset freezes, director disqualifications, and trust services sanctions.

UPDATE 0741 GMT:

Ukraine’s largest private energy firm DTEK has halted gas extraction in the Poltava region after this morning’s Russian missile and drone strikes damaged infrastructure.

UPDATE 0731 GMT:

In the Kremlin’s latest show of concern about supply of US Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the provision “would be an escalation, and a very serious one at that.”

Lavrov told the Russian outlet Kommersant that the supply would “cause colossal damage” to the normalization of US-Russian relations, undermining improvements during the Trump Administration.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Russia launched a missile attack on cities across Ukraine early Thursday.

The Air Force issued a nationwide threat alert at around 5:20 a.m., warning that Russia had launched MiG-31 bombers. The warplane can carry Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.

Moments after the first alert, explosions were reported in the Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, and Poltava region. A second alert was followed by blasts in the Chernihiv region, hitting an unidentified enterprise, and Kharkiv.

The Russians also fired ballistic and cruise missiles and Iran-type attack drones.

Zelensky on US Trip: “Bring the War Closer to An End”

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of his visit to Washington on Friday, saying Kyiv has “prepared our part of the homework…both the military component and the economic one”.

This can truly bring the war closer to an end – it is the United States that can wield this kind of global influence, and we are doing everything to ensure that others around the world stand on our side in this effort.

Donald Trump spoke vaguely about Ukraine’s desire to obtain long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles for strikes inside Russia: “They want to go offensive. I’ll make a determination on that, but they want to go offensive. and we’ll have to make a determination.”

He said the Administration is also “looking at other options” besides Tomahawks but did not say what they are.

Instead, he rambled about his dissatisfaction with Vladimir Putin:

All we want from President Putin is this: Stop killing Ukraines [sic] and stop killing Russians, cause he’s killing a lot of Russians. Again, it doesn’t make him look good.

It’s a war that he should have won in one week and he’s now going into his fourth year. That does not make this big so-called war machine look good. But he could make a settlement. We’re willing to settle. I thought we had a deal.

Trump declared that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him New Delhi will stop buying oil from Russia: “That’s a big step. Now we’re going to get China to do the same thing.”

Trump said India could not “immediately” halt Russian shipments, but the “little bit of a…process will be over soon”. The Indian Government made no comment on the claim.

Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on India, in part because of the oil purchases.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, India imported less than 1% of its oil from Moscow. Taking advantage of discounted supplies, New Delhi raised this to 40%, becoming Russia’s second-largest customer after China.