Russian

The Yantar, a notorious Russian spy ship, directed lasers at the crews of U.K. Royal Air Force aircraft in waters off the north of Scotland, the British government said today. While the Yantar has been a worrying presence around critical undersea infrastructure for years now, this development represents a concerning new trend, and one that could be very hazardous.

The alleged incident took place after a U.K. Royal Navy Type 23 frigate and Royal Air Force aircraft, including P-8A Poseidon MRA1 maritime patrol aircraft, were sent to monitor and track the vessel. Publicly available flight-tracking data suggests that Royal Air Force Typhoon fighters, supported by Voyager tankers, may also have been involved.

It’s not clear what kind of laser was used by the Yantar, but these encompass a wide range of systems, some of which can have significant power, at least enough to be a major concern. Depending on their output, lasers have the potential to temporarily obscure optics and the vision of personnel or cause permanent damage to both. More powerful laser weapons can burn holes in craft, damaging or destroying them, but are highly unlikely to have been installed on this vessel.

It is worth noting that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) has regularly been accused of using shipborne lasers to harass military aircraft, as you can read about here.

As for the Yantar, this vessel has been active off the coast of the United Kingdom for the last few weeks, according to the U.K. defense secretary, John Healey, who disclosed details of its activities today.

“This is a vessel designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables,” Healey said.

Referring to the laser incident, the defense secretary described the Russian ship’s action as “deeply dangerous,” noting that this is the second time this year that the Yantar has deployed to British waters.

Healey continued: “My message to Russia and to Putin is this: we see you, we know what you’re doing, and if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.”

The Yantar is part of the Russian Defense Ministry fleet, being operated by the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, a secretive branch that works on behalf of the Russian Navy and other agencies. The ship is around 112 feet long and, among other duties, operates as a mothership for uncrewed underwater vessels (UUVs), which can be used to investigate the seabed and potentially undertake sabotage and other activities, including manipulating objects on the seafloor.

As we have discussed in the past, the Yantar is officially classified as a Project 22010 “oceanographic research vessel,” but its specialized equipment can reportedly tap or cut submarine cables and investigate and retrieve objects from depths of up to 18,000 feet. The vessel is also likely to be able to place devices on the seabed that could cut cables long after the ship has moved on.

Russia has repeatedly claimed that the vessel is used for legitimate maritime “research” or “survey,” but it has an established pattern of operating around critical undersea infrastructure. In particular, it is assessed that the Yantar is used for surveilling the U.K.’s crucial network of undersea cables, around 60 of which branch out into the sea from the British Isles.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense has long considered the Yantar a spy ship and tracks it closely, leading to several run-ins with the vessel in the past.

In September, the U.K.’s National Security Strategy Committee stated that the government was being “too timid” in its approach to protecting British undersea cables, some of which also have a military role.

Meanwhile, another British government oversight body, the Defense Select Committee, recently concluded more broadly that the United Kingdom “must be willing to grasp the nettle and prioritize homeland defense and resilience.”

At the beginning of this year, the United Kingdom confirmed that one of its Royal Navy nuclear-powered submarines surfaced close to the Yantar, to make it clear it was being observed. The Yantar was sailing in British waters in November last year, when that incident occurred. Specifically, the Russian ship was said to be “detected loitering over U.K. critical undersea infrastructure.”

At one point, one of the Royal Navy’s Astute class attack submarines surfaced close to the Yantar “to make clear that we had been covertly monitoring its every move,” Healey said.

Tracking the Yantar is not necessarily a difficult job, since its position is typically broadcast at regular intervals using the automatic identification system (AIS), an automatic tracking system that uses transceivers on ships. This data is then also published by online ship tracking services. However, commercial tracking can be manipulated and spoofed, or it can just go dark, making the vessel harder to pinpoint.

At the same time, it should be noted that the vessel has been operating within the U.K.’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) but in international waters, which is entirely legal.

Earlier this year, the Yantar was reported in the Mediterranean. On this occasion, it was assumed to be involved in searching and potentially salvaging the wreck of the Russian cargo vessel MV Ursa Major, which sank after an apparent explosion in its engine room in late December.

🚨📸 Overview in the 🌊Alboran Sea on 16 January: the 🇷🇺Russian research vessel Yantar with the 🇺🇸American DDGH Paul Ignatius, then the 🇺🇸Ignatius with the 🇪🇸Spanish PSO Tornado.
With #NATO forces in the 🌊Mediterranean, the 🇷🇺Yantar passing Gibraltar illustrates that the… pic.twitter.com/h6fC64rKkB

— Russian Forces Spotter (@TiaFarris10) January 20, 2025

Back in 2018, the U.K. Royal Navy also escorted the Yantar through the English Channel as it headed into the North Sea. At this time, it was carrying a Saab SeaEye Tiger deep-sea robot on its deck. Russia acquired this underwater drone after the Kursk submarine disaster. It can reach depths of 3,280 feet.

A year before that, the Yantar was involved in a high-profile operation in 2017 when it sailed off the coast of Syria to recover the wreckage of two fighter jets, a Su-33 and a MiG-29KR, that crashed into the Mediterranean Sea during operations from Russia’s aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov.

While the reported use of a laser in a hostile capacity by the crew of the Yantar is a new development, its activity comes as NATO becomes increasingly concerned about apparent sabotage to undersea infrastructure carrying oil, gas, electricity, and the internet. More generally, the threat to undersea infrastructure, specifically data cables, is of growing concern internationally.

In the Baltic Sea alone, cables have been damaged on several occasions, with all of them carrying at least some of the hallmarks of sabotage. In the most notable event, on December 25 last year, an oil tanker dragging its anchor damaged a power cable running between Finland and Estonia.

The vessel responsible for that incident in the Baltic was the Russia-connected Eagle S. The oil tanker was reportedly found to be brimming with spy equipment after it was seized by authorities. Finnish authorities filed charges of aggravated sabotage and aggravated interference with telecommunications against members of its crew.

Incidents like this led to NATO launching Baltic Sentry, a mission intended to ensure the security of critical undersea infrastructure in the region. As you can read about here, the mission also involves crewed surface vessels, UUVs, and various aircraft.

The scale of the threat was apparent even before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, after which tensions between the Kremlin and the West heightened significantly.

“We are now seeing Russian underwater activity in the vicinity of undersea cables that I don’t believe we have ever seen,” U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Andrew Lennon, then serving as NATO’s top submarine officer, told The Washington Post back in December 2017. “Russia is clearly taking an interest in NATO and NATO nations’ undersea infrastructure.”

As Russia ramps up its hybrid warfare activities, which you can read more about here, the potential risk to undersea infrastructure is put into a much sharper focus. In many cases, such activities are deniable.

While NATO has long been aware of how difficult it can be to defend this kind of infrastructure against hostile actors, the apparent use of lasers by part of Russia’s spy fleet is another serious cause for concern.

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To Russia, the Yantar is a oceanic research vessel – to others, including the UK, it’s a spy ship, and a worry for Britain’s defence chiefs.

The vessel has long been suspected of secretly mapping out Britain’s undersea cables, where more than 90% of our data, including billions of dollars of financial transactions, are transferred.

But now, a new escalation, with revelations the Yantar’s sailors targeted Royal Air Force pilots in patrol planes with lasers.

Shining lasers into a pilot’s eyes is provocative, and to use the Defence Secretary John Healey’s words, “deeply dangerous”. It’s illegal in the UK and can lead to a prison sentence.

Healey’s direct message to Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin was stark: “We see you. We know what you’re doing. And if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.”

By that, he is implying should the Yantar cross inside Britain’s 12-mile maritime boundary there would be a military response.

This isn’t the first time the Yantar has popped up near Britain’s shores – at the start of the year a Royal Navy submarine made the highly unusual move to surface right in front of the ship as a sort of deterrent measure.

The concern is that this is part of an ongoing operation by the Kremlin to locate and map all the vital undersea cables and pipelines that connect the UK to the rest of the world.

It is also part of a wider pattern of Russian activity, as it tests Nato’s reactions, resolve and defences. We’ve seen similar moves with the recent drone incursions across Europe, and Russian warplanes flying into Nato airspace.

When three Russian fighter jets entered Estonian skies without permission in September, Italy, Finland and Sweden scrambled jets under Nato’s mission to bolster its eastern flank.

This is all interesting intel for Russia.

As an island nation, Britain is heavily reliant on its network of undersea cables that carry data. There are also vital oil and gas pipelines connecting Britain to North Sea neighbours such as Norway.

These cables and pipes are largely undefended and apparently of great interest to Russia’s research vessels.

Nato has identified deep-sea cables as part of the world’s critical infrastructure. But they are also strategic pressure points, it says, warning that adversaries could exploit them through sabotage or hybrid warfare, threatening both civilian and military communications.

Retired Royal Navy Commander Tom Sharpe made clear what the spy ship could be doing: “The most obvious one is they sit above our cables and our critical undersea infrastructure and they nose around in the cables that transfer up to $7tn worth of financial transactions every day between us and America alone”.

The Yantar may be described by Moscow as a research vessel, but it is part of Russia’s secretive Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research, or GUGI, which reports directly to the defence ministry.

And while the ship bristles with hi-tech communications equipment, it’s what we can’t see that is of most concern.

It can operate remotely-piloted miniature submarines that can dive down to sea beds many thousands of metres below the surface. These are capable of mapping the locations of cables, cutting them or planting sabotage devices that could, potentially, be activated in a time of war.

The Royal Navy is experimenting with various means of combating the threat, such as a new vessel called Proteus, but critics fear much of the damage to Britain’s coastal security may already have been done.

Any foreign vessel operating in British waters must comply with UK national laws and international maritime conventions.

The cornerstone of these complex rules is the UN Convention on the Law of The Sea (UNCLOS). This allows foreign ships to navigate through coastal waters provided that their passage is “innocent” – meaning it doesn’t threaten the peace or security of a coastal nation like Britain.

President Putin was at an AI conference in Moscow on Wednesday, and gave no immediate reaction on the situation unfolding north of Scotland.

Russia’s Embassy in London says it’s not undermining UK security and it has condemned UK Defence Secretary Healey’s statement as provocative.

But all this is happening while war rages in Ukraine, a conflict Putin blames on the West and which seemingly he has no intention of stopping soon.

A controversial Russian general is now in Venezuela leading a rotational advisory mission, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR) told The War Zone exclusively. Colonel General Oleg Leontievich Makarevich commands the Russian Ministry of Defense’s Equator Task Force (ETF), Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov said. Makarevich is in charge of more than 120 troops who are training Venezuelan forces on a wide range of military functions, according to Budanov. Those activities are not in reaction to the current U.S. military buildup in the region.

The War Zone cannot independently verify Budanov’s claim and we have reached out to the White House, Pentagon and U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) for confirmation. We will update this story with any pertinent details provided. Questions to Budanov were prompted in part by a story in Intelligence Online claiming that an elite Russian drone unit has arrived in Venezuela to teach troops there how to use first-person view (FPV) drones.

The Ukrainian intelligence chief’s comments come as the Trump administration has established a significant presence of U.S. forces in the Caribbean. While Task Force Southern Spear is ostensibly aimed at countering narcotics trafficking in the region, the effort is also focused on pressuring Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. You can catch up with our recent coverage of the ongoing Caribbean operation here.

Makarevich and his troops are likely to remain in Venezuela during any U.S. attack, Budanov suggested.

“I think they will be behind the scenes and officially Russia will try to speak to the U.S. because their units are in Venezuela,” Budanov said. “It’s just a game.”

The Russians are serving as “military advisors and also teachers,” Budanov explained. “In general, it’s infantry, UAV and special forces training.”

Among other things, ETF is also providing Venezuela with signals intelligence, Budanov added.

The deployment of Russian troops to Venezuela is a long-standing rotation that has existed for years, Budanov noted. He also said that GUR has not identified any change in Russian troop levels in Venezuela since Trump’s Caribbean push began. However, it appears that Makarevich, who has been in the South American country since the beginning of the year, has had his deployment there extended, Budanov said. Typical rotations for Russian commanders last about six months, he pointed out.

Makarevich and about 90 Russian officers and other troops are located in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, according to a document Budanov shared with us. The rest are stationed at Maracaibo, La Guaira and Aves Island.

The U.S. likewise has advisors throughout South America who also train troops, offer operational advice and sometimes serve as observers.

As for a high-ranking Russian politician’s claim that Moscow recently provided Pantsir-S1 and Buk-M2E air defense systems, Budanov was uncertain.

“The Buk-M2 we see,” he told us. “The Pantsir we don’t know about.”

That politician, Alexei Zhuravlev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, also threatened that Russia could increase the supply of advanced weapons to Venezuela, including long-range standoff weapons, like cruise missiles. Another concern for the U.S. could be Russia providing Shahed-family drones capable of striking targets at great distances and at low cost. In the past, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened that he could provide standoff weapons to America’s enemies, Venezuela among them, as we have previously noted.

A separate document Budanov shared with us provides greater insight into the ETF mission in Venezuela. It explains how Russian troops are providing training in several key areas and assessing the combat capabilities of the Venezuelan Armed Forces. That includes armor, aircraft, artillery, drones and even dogs. In addition, Russia is helping Venezuela monitor domestic groups and foreign governments, according to the document.

We cannot independently confirm the provenance of the document or the accuracy of the information stated within it.

It is interesting to note that Makarevich, 62, was put in charge of this task force. Putin fired him as commander of the Dnipro Group of troops in October 2023 after Ukraine’s successful Kherson counteroffensive. During that operation, Ukrainian forces recaptured Kherson City in November 2022. You can see Russian officials talking about that event, a huge defeat for Russia at the time, in the following video.

Makarevich is also accused by Ukraine of ordering the June 2023 destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam. The incident caused massive flooding and severe economic and environmental damage. At the time, then-Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu blamed Ukraine, saying that Kyiv blew up the dam to prevent Russian offensive actions in the region.

Meanwhile, the world continues to wait on Trump’s decision about what to do with the huge U.S. military presence in the region. It includes the aircraft carrier USS Ford, three of its escort ships, seven other Navy surface warships, a special operations mothership, a wide array of aerial assets and about 15,000 troops.

In another apparent step closer to taking some kind of kinetic action, Trump has “signed off on C.I.A. plans for covert measures inside Venezuela, operations that could be meant to prepare a battlefield for further action,” The New York Times reported.

Asked if Ukraine’s GUR has assets in Venezuela, Budanov offered a coy response.

“We collect all the information about them,” he said.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Nov. 19 (UPI) — At least 20 people were killed and more than 100 injured after Russian forces unleashed more than 500 drones and missiles against targets across Ukraine overnight.

The deadliest strike was in the western city of Ternopil, 70 miles southeast of Lviv, where 20 people died and 66 were injured, including 16 children, when a nine-story apartment building was almost completely destroyed, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

Images and footage from the scene show the residential building reduced to smoldering rubble above the third floor.

Emergency rescue teams were continuing to search the wreckage for victims Wednesday morning and local authorities ordered residents to stay in their homes and keep windows closed due to the presence of harmful gases and particulates in the air at six times the normal levels.

The neighboring Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi provinces were also hit in attacks targeting energy, transport and other civilian infrastructure. Three people were injured in Ivano-Frankivsk while in Khmelnytskyi, damage to power-generating and distribution facilities left as many as 2,000 people without electricity in sub-zero temperatures.

At the other end of the country, at least 30 people were injured after drones attacked three districts of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, setting buildings and cars on fire.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X that the Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Dnipro regions were also struck in the attack, which he said involved more than 470 attack drones and 48 missiles, mostly cruise missiles.

In a social media update, the Ukrainian military said that while 442 of the drones and 41 cruise missiles were intercepted, seven missiles and 34 drones were able to penerate air defenses, successfully targeting 14 locations. A further six locations were impacted by falling debris from downed drones and missiles.

The attacks came as Zelensky headed to Turkey from Spain on Wednesday to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying he was seeking to “reinvigorate” peace talks with Moscow which have been stalled for months.

Reports have emerged that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff has been engaging behind the scenes with his Russian counterpart, Kirill Dmitriev, to work toward a peace plan.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov would not confirm the U.S.-Russia negotiations and said Moscow would not be sending any representative to Wednesday’s talks in Ankara.

The move was linked to a meeting between Zelensky and U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Randy George in Kyiv on Thursday. Driscoll and George are the most senior U.S. officials to visit Ukraine in nine months.

Moscow accuses Poland of Russophobia, pledges to respond by reducing Polish diplomatic and consular presence in Russia.

Poland has announced it will close its last remaining Russian consulate in the northern Polish city of Gdansk following the targeting of a railway line to Ukraine from Warsaw, blaming Moscow for the incident.

“I have decided to withdraw consent for the operation of the Russian consulate in Gdansk,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told journalists on Wednesday.

Sikorski said he had repeatedly warned Russia that its diplomatic and consular presence would be reduced further if it did not cease hostile actions against Poland, Polish news agency PAP reported.

The move means the only Russian diplomatic mission that will remain open in Poland will be the embassy in Warsaw.

The Kremlin responded to the allegation by accusing Poland of “Russophobia”.

“Relations with Poland have completely deteriorated. This is probably a manifestation of this deterioration – the Polish authorities’ desire to reduce any possibility of consular or diplomatic relations to zero,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the consulate closure.

“One can only express regret here … This has nothing to do with common sense.”

Later on Wednesday, Russia’s state news agency TASS quoted Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying Moscow will respond by reducing Poland’s diplomatic and consular presence in the country.

‘Unprecedented sabotage’

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has described the weekend explosion on a line linking Warsaw to the border with Ukraine as an “unprecedented act of sabotage”.

On Tuesday, Tusk told the Polish parliament that the two suspects had been collaborating with the Russian secret services for a long time.

As a result of the investigation, we now know it was the Russian Secret Services that commissioned the blast of the Polish railway and recruited two Ukrainians to do it. We also know the identities of the perpetrators who immediately fled Poland for Belarus.

— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) November 18, 2025

He said their identities were known but could not be revealed because of the ongoing investigation, and that the pair had already left Poland, crossing into Belarus.

Western officials have accused Russia and its proxies of staging dozens of attacks and other incidents across Europe since the invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, according to data collected by The Associated Press news agency.

Moscow’s goal, Western officials say, is to undermine support for Ukraine, spark fear and divide European societies.

Russian attacks killed three people in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region as President Zelenskyy visits Paris to meet President Macron.

Undated video circulating on social media shows Russian troops moving through dense fog in Pokrovsk as Moscow steps up efforts to reinforce positions. Ukraine says around 300 Russian soldiers are in the town and are trying to push north to encircle the area.

Foreign minister says Budapest ‘obtained an indefinite exemption from the sanctions’ on Russian oil and gas shipments.

Hungary’s foreign minister says Budapest has secured an indefinite waiver from US sanctions on Russian oil and gas imports, as a White House official reiterated that the exemption was for only a period of one year.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday to press for a reprieve after the US last month imposed sanctions on Russian oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft.

After the meeting, Orban told Hungarian media that Budapest had “been granted a complete exemption from sanctions” affecting Russian gas delivered to Hungary from the TurkStream pipeline, and oil from the Druzhba pipeline.

But a White House official later told the Reuters news agency that Hungary had been granted a one-year exemption from sanctions connected to using Russian energy.

On Saturday, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said there would be no sanctions for “an indefinite period”.

“The prime minister was clear. He has agreed with the US President [Donald Trump] that we have obtained an indefinite exemption from the sanctions,” Szijjarto wrote on Facebook.

“There are no sanctions on oil and gas shipments to Hungary for an indefinite period.”

However, a White House official repeated in an email to the Reuters news agency on Saturday that the exemption is for one year.

Hungary expected to buy US LNG

The White House official who spoke to Reuters added that Hungary would also diversify its energy purchases and had committed to buying US liquefied natural gas with contracts valued at some $600m.

Orban has maintained close ties with both Moscow and Washington, while often bucking the rest of the EU on pressuring Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

The Hungarian leader offered to host a summit in Budapest between Trump and Putin, although the US leader called it off in October and hit Moscow with sanctions for the first time in his presidency.

Budapest relies heavily on Russian energy, and Orban, 15 years in power, faces a close election next year.

International Monetary Fund figures show Hungary bought 74 percent of its gas and 86 percent of its oil from Russia in 2024, warning that an EU-wide cutoff of Russian natural gas alone could cost Hungary more than 4 percent of its GDP.

Orban said that, without the agreement, energy costs would have surged, hitting the wider economy, pushing up unemployment and generating “unbearable” price rises for households and firms.

Nov. 8 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump has exempted Hungary from sanctions over the nation’s purchase of Russian gas and oil for one year after meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Trump is a close ally of the far-right populist and authoritarian, who came into power in 1998 but was out of office from 2002 to 2010.

On Friday at the White House, Trump said he was considering the exemption because “it’s very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas.”

After the meeting, Orban posted on X with a video: “Decision reached: President Donald Trump has guaranteed full sanction exemptions for the TurkStream and Friendship pipelines, allowing Hungary to continue providing families with the lowest energy prices in Europe. Thank you, Mr. President!”

The BBC confirmed the exemption was for one year.

Hungary’s dependence on Russian crude oil was 61% before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, then rose to 86% in 2024 and 92% this year.

On Oct. 22, the U.S. added sanctions against Russia, including blacklisting two of Russia’s largest oil companies: Open Joint Stock Company Rosneft Oil Company and Lukoil OAO.

Russia has been the world’s third-largest oil exporter, generating $120 billion in 2024 behind No. 1 Saudi Arabia at $225 billion and No. 2 Canada. $121billion. The United States is No. 4 at $117 billion.

Extensive sanctions were imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022. Initially, they were imposed in March 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea.

The Trump administration is attempting to use tariffs to halt third-country access, including by India.

But Trump said he understands Hungary’s situation of being a landlocked nation with limited access to gas and oil.

The U.S. State Department said Hungary has agreed to purchase U.S. liquefied gas worth about $600 million, NBC News reported.

Also, Hungary agreed to purchase American nuclear fuel, which it currently buys from Russia.

Despite similar policies as Trump, Orban said the pipelines are not “ideological” or “political” and instead a “physical reality.”

Orban had blamed U.S. President Joe Biden for “politically motivated sanctions,” including his top aid Antal Rogaan with allegations of corruption.

“Now we are quite a good position to open up a new chapter – let’s say a golden age – between the United States and Hungary,” Orban said.

Trump has used the term “golden age of America,” declaring it began with his second inauguration on Jan. 20.

The exemption was criticized by an analyst.

“The U.S. decision is a terrible and unnecessary mistake that will allow over 1 billion euros [$1.2 billion] to flow into the Kremlin’s war chest,” Isaac Levi, with the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, told CNN. “By carving out special treatment for Hungary, Washington is telling other buyers that they can keep handling Russian oil and still expect to be let off the hook.”

Levi noted the Czech Republic is another country with a port that manages without Russian crude oil and has lower fuel prices at the pump than Hungary.

“This clearly shows that the oil flows that continue to finance Putin’s war in Ukraine are entirely unnecessary,” he said.

Trump said he is “very disturbed” by other European countries that still buy Russian commodities despite not being landlocked.

Hungary and neighboring Slovakia are the only EU countries still getting Russian oil from the Druzhba pipeline.

EU countries’ gas comes via Turkey through the TurkStream pipeline. Russia’s share of EU gas imports fell from 40% pre-invasion to 11% in 2024.

But Slovakia is “almost 100% dependent” on Russian crude oil, according to a report from the Center for Research and Energy and Clean Air and the Center for the Study of Democracy.

The European Commission granted an exemption to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – three countries heavily reliant on Russian imports – for time to reduce reliance.

Other nations don’t have close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

For other products, Trump has imposed a baseline 15% tariff as part of a trade agreement with the European Union.

That includes Hungary’s car industry.

On Oct. 21, Trump canceled his planned summit with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, after Putin’s demands on ending the war in Ukraine remained.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Friday he’s considering granting Hungary an exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian energy as he sat down with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House. “We’re looking at it because its very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas,” Trump said.

Orbán said it’s a “vital” issue for his landlocked country, and said he planned to discuss with Trump the “consequences for the Hungarian people” if the sanctions took effect.

In comments on Friday, Orbán said he would present Trump with several “suggestions” for implementing an exemption.

“I’m not asking for some kind of gift from the Americans or some kind of unusual thing. I am simply asking for the realization that the sanctions recently imposed on Russian energy puts certain countries like Hungary, which do not have access to the sea, in an impossible situation,” Orbán said on state radio. “I’m going to ask the president to acknowledge that.”

A large delegation of cabinet members, business leaders and numerous right-wing political influencers with close connections to Hungary’s government accompanied Orbán to Washington. The delegation rented a 220-passenger commercial jet from Hungarian carrier Wizz Air for the journey.

Prior to Orbán’s arrival on Thursday, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a resolution calling on Hungary to end its dependence on Russian energy.

The resolution was co-signed by 10 senators including Republicans Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, as well as Democrats Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Chris Coons of Delaware. It “expresses concern that Hungary has shown no sign of reducing its dependence on Russian fossil fuels,” and urges Budapest to adhere to a European Union plan to cease all Russian energy imports into the bloc by the end of 2027.

“Europe has made extraordinary progress cutting its energy ties with Moscow, but Hungary’s actions continue to undermine collective security and embolden the Kremlin,” Shaheen wrote in a statement. The resolution, she continued, “sends a clear message that when it comes to buying Russian energy, all allies should be held to the same standard, and that includes Hungary.”

On Friday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Washington that he will sign a bilateral nuclear energy cooperation agreement with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to Hungarian state news agency MTI.

The deal will involve Hungary’s first-ever purchases of American nuclear fuel, which it currently buys from Russia, and introduce U.S. technology for the on-site storage of spent fuel at Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant. The agreement will also include cooperation on small modular reactors.

After arriving in Washington, Orbán and some of his top officials met with Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who in September was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after an election loss. Orbán posted on social media: “We stand firmly with the Bolsonaros in these challenging times — friends and allies who never give up. Keep fighting: political witch-hunts have no place in democracy, truth and justice must prevail!”

Megerian and Spike write for the Associated Press. Spike reported from Budapest

A high-ranking Russian lawmaker claims his government recently sent Venezuela air defense systems and could provide ballistic and cruise missiles in the future. The comments, to an official Russian media outlet, are a response to the ongoing buildup of U.S. forces in the region aimed at narco-traffickers and Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is now in the Atlantic, heading for the Caribbean, which you can read more about later in this story. You can catch up with our latest coverage of the Caribbean situation in our story here.

“Russian Pantsir-S1 and Buk-M2E systems were just recently delivered to Caracas by Il-76 transport aircraft,” Alexei Zhuravlev, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Defense Committee, told Gazeta.Ru earlier this week.

“Russia is actually one of Venezuela’s key military-technical partners; we supply the country with virtually the entire range of weapons, from small arms to aircraft,” Zhuravlev added. “Russian Su-30MK2 fighters are the backbone of the Venezuelan Air Force, making it one of the most powerful air powers in the region. The delivery of several S-300VM (Antey-2500) battalions has significantly strengthened the country’s ability to protect important installations from air attacks.”

The delivery of Pantsir-S1 systems would appear to be a new development; however, without visual proof, we cannot independently verify Zhuravlev’s claim. An Ilyushin Il-76 airlifter, owned by the Russian Aviacon Zitotrans air transport company, did arrive in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas on Oct. 26 after a circuitous route from Naberezhnye Chelny in Russia, according to FlightRadar24. It is not publicly known what, if any, cargo was delivered. Defense News was the first to report the flight. It’s unclear is other flights have occurred, as well.

Russia has previously provided Venezuela with Buks and S-300VMs. It has also received 21 Su-30MK2 Flanker fighters that are capable of air defense missions, but they can also sling supersonic anti-ship missiles, as well as flying other types of missions.

Just how Maduro’s air defenses could affect any U.S. military strike on Venezuela is something we examined in our deep dive on the topic.

“Venezuela has an unusually varied collection of air defense assets, including smaller numbers of more capable systems. However, even most of the older surface-to-air missile systems have been upgraded and, as stated earlier, are generally highly mobile, meaning they can appear virtually anywhere, disrupting carefully laid mission plans. They could still pose a threat that would have to be taken seriously during any kind of offensive U.S. air operation directed against Venezuela.”

In addition to military aid already given to Venezuela, Zhuravlev suggested that Moscow, which recently ratified a mutual aid agreement with Caracas, could also provide long-range strike weapons.

“Information about the volumes and exact types of what is being imported from Russia is classified, so the Americans could be in for some surprises,” the Russian parliamentarian proferred. “I also see no obstacles to supplying a friendly country with new developments like the Oreshnik or, say, the proven Kalibr missiles; at least, no international obligations restrict Russia from doing so.”

The Oreshnik, a large, intermediate-range ballistic missile system, has been used against Ukraine by Russia. In August, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that production had started on the Oreshniks and reaffirmed his plans to deploy them to ally Belarus later this year. The Kalibr cruise missile, which can be launched from surface combatants and submarines, has been frequently used by Russia in its full-on war against Ukraine. 

With a reported maximum range of about 3,400 miles and a minimum effective range of about 400 miles, the Oreshnik could theoretically threaten much of the continental United States as well as Puerto Rico, which is being used as a staging base for the Caribbean operations. The Kalibr is thought to have a range of between 930 and 1,550 miles, which could possibly threaten the southern continental U.S., as well as facilities throughout the Caribbean.

Whether Russia can actually deliver any meaningful supply of these weapons remains unclear. The country is facing a shortage of air defenses after waves of attacks by Ukraine. Meanwhile, though Russia is still making them, it is unknown how many Kalibrs it still has after nearly four years of hitting Ukrainian targets. International sanctions have stymied advanced standoff weapon production in Russia. The rate at which new Kalibrs are being delivered isn’t known. Regardless, these standoff weapons are far more precious than they once were. The Oreshnik is an experimental weapon in very limited supply. That could change if Russia can produce them in meaningful quantities, but they are also larger and more complex to deploy. They would also be far more threatening to the United States than cruise missiles if they were perched in Venezuela, but that seems more like a questionable possibility in the future, not today.

While the exact extent of Moscow’s supply of new arms to Venezuela is also unknown, Putin has threatened in the past that Russia could provide standoff weapons to America’s enemies. As debate swirled last year about whether Ukraine’s allies would deliver long-range weapons to Kyiv, Putin said Russia could supply similar “regions” around the world where they could be used for strikes against Western targets. Venezuela came up as a possibility for where these weapons could go at the time.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s Caribbean buildup could give Putin a pretext to carry out his threat, and in America’s backyard. Trump has also been mulling giving Tomahawk Land Attack cruise missiles (TLAMs) to Ukraine, which would also fit into a potential narrative from Moscow to justify standoff weapons transfers. Clearly, some would draw direct parallels to the Cuban Missile Crisis just on the thought of such a notion. While there are clear similarities to that historic series of events, there are major differences too. It’s also possible Russia could give lower-end, but still long-range ‘deterrence’ weapons to Venezuela in the form of Shahed-136 one-way attack drones, which it has an increasingly large supply of.

We reached out to the White House and Pentagon for further context about the Russian lawmaker’s claims and will update this story with any pertinent details shared. The Pentagon referred us to the White House, which did not directly answer our questions.

Meanwhile, the Ford and one of its escorts, Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge, have passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and are now in the North Atlantic, a Navy official confirmed to The War Zone Tuesday morning. As we have previously reported, the Ford has been dispatched by Trump to take part in the ongoing operations in the Caribbean.

The rest of the carrier strike group’s Arleigh Burke class ships, however, are not with the Ford, according to the Navy. 

The USS Winston S. Churchill is the closest to the carrier, currently in the North Atlantic above Morocco, the Navy official told us. The USS Forrest Sherman and USS Mitscher are in the Red Sea while the USS Mahan is in Rota, Spain.

In addition, the San Antonio class amphibious transport dock ship USS Fort Lauderdale is now north of Cuba, the Navy official added. A U.S. official told us the ship is headed south to the Caribbean to rejoin the rest of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG)/22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) operating as part of the enhanced counter-narcotics operation. There are now eight surface warships, a nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, and the MV Ocean Trader – a roll-on/roll-off cargo ship modified to carry special operators and their gear – assembled in the region. There is also an array of aviation assets, among them F-35B stealth fighters, AC-130 gunships, airlifters and MQ-9 Reaper drones, deployed for this operation.

Amid all this signaling by the U.S. and Russia, the Trump administration has “developed a range of options for military action in Venezuela, including direct attacks on military units that protect Maduro and moves to seize control of the country’s oil fields,” The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing multiple U.S. officials.

Trump “has yet to make a decision about how or even whether to proceed,” the newspaper noted. “Officials said he was reluctant to approve operations that may place American troops at risk or could turn into an embarrassing failure. But many of his senior advisers are pressing for one of the most aggressive options: ousting Mr. Maduro from power.”

The president’s aides “have asked the Justice Department for additional guidance that could provide a legal basis for any military action beyond the current campaign of striking boats that the administration says are trafficking narcotics, without providing evidence,” the publication added. “Such guidance could include a legal rationale for targeting Mr. Maduro without creating the need for congressional authorization for the use of military force, much less a declaration of war.”

Trump is also directing staff to brief more members of Congress on the aggressive anti-narcotics tactics in the Caribbean and Pacific, Axios reported on Tuesday.

“The unprecedented military maneuvers off Venezuela and the continual extra-judicial killings of unarmed suspects —at least 64 of whom have died in 15 boat sinkings— have sparked bipartisan calls for more intel on the White House’s decision making,” the news outlet posited.

While the U.S. is blowing up alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, it is also seizing them in the Pacific.

“MORE WINNING,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday. “U.S. military captures another drug speedboat and seizes over 5,000 lbs of drugs and apprehends nearly 60 narco terrorists as part of its Operation Pacific Viper.”

In addition to operations against Venezuela’s drug trafficking organizations, NBC News on Monday reported that the U.S. was planning kinetic actions against cartels in Mexico. On Tuesday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pushed back on that possibility.

“It’s not going to happen,” Sheinbaum said during her daily morning news conference on Tuesday. “We do not agree with any process of interference or interventionism.”

It remains unknown at the moment if or when Trump will order an attack on Venezuela. He has previously suggested strikes on ports and other facilities associated with narcotraffickers. However, he has also delivered mixed messages, saying he doubts there will be an attack but that Maduro must go.

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Russia has reserves of 15 rare-earth metals totalling 28.7 million tonnes, according to the Natural Resources Ministry.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his cabinet to draw up a roadmap for the extraction of rare-earth minerals by December 1, as global interest in the metals heightens due to their use in modern technologies and a desire to reduce reliance on the Chinese-dominated market.

In a list of tasks for ministers published on the Kremlin website, Putin on Tuesday also ordered the cabinet to take measures to develop transport links at Russia’s borders with China and North Korea.

Rare earths – used in smartphones, electric vehicles and weapons systems – have taken on vital strategic importance in international trade.

In April, United States President Donald Trump signed a deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that will give the US preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals deals and fund investment in the country’s reconstruction.

Russia says it is also interested in partnering with the US on rare-earth projects.

In March, Putin’s investment envoy – Kirill Dmitriev – claimed that Russia and the US had started talks on rare-earth metals projects in Russia, and that some US companies had expressed an interest in them. However, prospects between the US and Russia have been held up by a lack of progress towards ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.

China, the dominant producer of rare earths, has hit back at US tariffs this year by placing restrictions on rare earths exports. Its almost total global control has focused Washington’s attention on developing its own supplies.

Putin’s order – a summary of action points from a Far Eastern Economic Forum he attended in Vladivostok in September – did not go into detail about Russia’s rare earths plan.

The US Geological Survey estimates Russia’s reserves of rare earth metals at 3.8 million tonnes, but Moscow has far higher estimates.

According to the Natural Resources Ministry, Russia has reserves of 15 rare-earth metals totalling 28.7 million tonnes, as of January 2023.

But even accounting for this possible margin of error, Russia still only accounts for a tiny fraction of global stockpiles.

Among other points, Putin also instructed the government to develop “multimodal transport and logistics centres” on the Chinese and North Korean borders.

Putin said the locations should include two existing railway bridges linking Russia and China and a planned new bridge to North Korea, which he said must be commissioned in 2026.

Both of Russia’s far eastern neighbours have deepened economic ties with Moscow since Western countries imposed sanctions on it over its war in Ukraine.