THE BATTLE FOR POKROVSK: For a year and a half, Russia has committed an inordinate number of forces and suffered horrific casualties (over 1,500 dead last month) trying to take the city of Pokrovsk, located on the front lines of Donetsk province in eastern Ukraine.
The latest battlefield reports suggest Ukrainian defenders of the city — which once had 60,000 inhabitants but is now mostly deserted — may soon be overwhelmed by Russian forces who have taken about 90% of Pokrovsk and are slowly advancing in house-to-house battles.
“Russian forces are just a few km away from closing their pincer movement around Pokrovsk and neighbouring Myrnohrad and are also closing in on Ukrainian forces in Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region,” Reuters reported from Moscow.
“Moscow’s forces are now close to cutting off the main roads into Pokrovsk, with its two key supply routes already under fire from Russian drones, making it dangerous and difficult to bring in supplies and also threatening Ukrainian forces ability to withdraw,” ABC news reported.
Dubbed “the gateway to Donetsk” by Russian media, the fall of Pokrovsk would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a psychological victory and buttress his effort to seize more territory before seriously considering ending the war. It would give Putin his biggest win since the fall of Bakhmut in May 2023, and would put the last two major cities in Donetsk, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk, in peril.
ZELENSKY: ‘IT IS DIFFICULT FOR OUR PEOPLE’: Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the front lines posting pictures of himself meeting with generals at a command post near Pokrovsk. “The enemy has not been successful,” he insisted, while conceding his forces were under great strain. “In recent days, 26 to 30 percent of all combat operations on the front line have taken place in Pokrovsk. Moreover, 50 percent of all guided bombs are being used in Pokrovsk,” he said. “So, you understand how difficult it is for our people.”
“The situation is critical there. The Russians inside the city, the numbers are not large, but it’s extremely difficult to fight them,” Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics and a former Ukrainian Economy Minister, said on CNN this week. “Ukraine has deployed reinforcements, but it’s a critical town. I mean, it has been destroyed, but it’s a critical town because it opens up a direction toward further of Ukraine.”
Zelensky’s posts on X over the past 24 hours have not mentioned Pokrovsk, instead decrying another massive overnight drone and missile attack on energy and civilian targets in Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Odesa, Dnipro, and Sumy regions. “The fact that the Russians continue targeting energy facilities and civilians shows once again that the pressure is still insufficient.”
A TACTICAL RETREAT? Zelensky is faced with a dilemma: order his troops to withdraw to save lives, or fight on to deny Putin a victory that, though small, would give the Russian leader a talking point to try to sway President Donald Trump that the only path to peace is for Ukraine to give up the eastern Donbas region to Russia.
“After a year of fighting on the Pokrovsk-Myrnohrad axis, losing the cities now would have limited effect on the broader operational picture. A Ukrainian retreat from the area doesn’t mean Russia would automatically gain momentum which they could capitalize on immediately,” Emil Kastehelmi, an analyst with the Finnish Black Bird Group, wrote on X. “Even though land and cities would be lost, abandoning the salient could benefit Ukraine militarily. The most acute threat of encirclement would be gone, units could operate under better logistics, and the front would straighten and shorten by dozens of kilometers.”
Read more analysis from Washington Examiner foreign policy writer Tom Rogan:
OPINION: WHAT RUSSIA’S DESPERATE STRUGGLE TO ENVELOP POKROVSK TELLS US
Good Friday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Christopher Tremoglie. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow me on Threads and/or on X @jamiejmcintyre.
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NOTE TO READERS: Daily on Defense will be on Thanksgiving break beginning the week of Monday, Nov. 17, and continuing through the end of the month. We’ll be back at the beginning of December.
HAPPENING TODAY: War Secretary Pete Hegseth is doing something today, but under restrictions imposed by the Pentagon, we’re not supposed to tell you where or what it is. Since the government shutdown, the Pentagon has pretty much cut off the flow of official information, including notice of Hegseth’s travel schedule and public appearances.
No official readouts are provided of his meetings, and no transcripts are posted of his remarks. To track what Hegseth is up to requires checking his official X account and his unofficial personal X account, where he receives his curated version of what is happening at the Pentagon.
This morning, we learned of a 17th attack on a small boat suspected of trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea, killing three more alleged drug smugglers, and bringing the total killed to 70. “If you want to stay alive, stop trafficking drugs. If you keep trafficking deadly drugs — we will kill you,” Hegeth posted.
On his personal page, we learned that Hegseth appeared at the Fox Nation Patriot Awards in New York, where, dressed in a smart tuxedo, he reprised a stand-up version of his now-famous Quantico speech, including the notable lines about FAFO and his anti-DEI rant. “As I’ve said, no more gender quotas, no more DEI, no more climate change. No more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that s***.”
WAR POWERS RESOLUTION FAILS: It looked for a brief moment that the War Powers Resolution backed by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Rand Paul (R-KY) might actually squeak through the Senate with the support of three Republicans.
But only Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined Paul to side with the 47 democrats, and the measure went down to defeat 51-49. Democrats had been hoping that Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Todd Young (R-IN) would give them the winning margin, but both voted against the measure, which would have blocked the use of the U.S. Armed Forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela.
“My vote today is not an endorsement of the Administration’s current course in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific,” Young said in a statement. “As a matter of policy, I am troubled by many aspects and assumptions of this operation and believe it is at odds with the majority of Americans who want the U.S. military less entangled in international conflicts.”
“While no one has declared war on Venezuela, the creeping expansion of executive war-making — under presidents of both parties — without congressional input or oversight is dangerous,” Young said. “The American people deserve a more transparent strategy — not ad hoc military maneuvers conducted without a clearly-defined objective.”
SECOND THOUGHTS ON VENEZUELA? Meanwhile, several sourced media reports have suggested that President Trump may be cooling on the idea of conducting military strikes against targets in Venezuela.
Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Trump “recently expressed reservations to top aides about launching military action to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro,” fearing the strikes might not compel Maduro to step down. “Trump continues to query aides about military options,” the report noted. But for now, officials told the Journal, “Trump is content with slowly building up U.S. forces in the region and continuing to strike boats allegedly smuggling drugs in the Caribbean and Pacific.”
A separate report from CNN cites sources “familiar with the briefing” given to a small bipartisan group of lawmakers this week by Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth, during which they were reportedly told there are no current plans to launch strikes inside Venezuela, in part because the U.S. doesn’t have a legal justification.
“Lawmakers were told during the classified session that the opinion produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to justify strikes against suspected drug boats … does not permit strikes inside Venezuela itself or any other territories,” CNN said, citing four sources.
“The president has said he would continue to strike narcoterrorists trafficking illicit narcotics — anything else is speculation and should be treated as such,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
CHINA CARRIER: With President Xi Jinping presiding, China has unveiled its newest, state-of-the-art aircraft carrier, boasting a feature standard on the new Ford-class U.S. carriers: an electromagnetic catapult that enables the ship to launch a wide variety of aircraft.
On its website, the Chinese Defense Ministry touted the Fujian as its “first catapult-assisted aircraft carrier,” and said “its entry into service marks the dawn of China’s three-aircraft-carrier era.”
President Donald Trump has never liked what he calls the electric catapult and has at various times threatened to order the Navy to return to old-fashioned steam systems. “I love the sight of that beautiful steam pouring off that deck. With the electric, you don’t have that,” Trump told troops gathered on the deck of the USS George Washington last month during a trip to Japan.
“Seriously, they’re spending billions of dollars to build stupid electric,” Trump said. “And the problem when it breaks, you have to send it up to MIT, get the most brilliant people in the world, fly them out. That’s ridiculous. The steam, they say, they can fix it with a hammer and a blowtorch, and it works just as well, if not better.”
WHERE IN THE WORLD IS LAVROV? The absence of longtime Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov from this week’s Kremlin meeting of President Vladimir Putin’s Security Council has prompted speculation that Lavrov may have fallen out of favor over botching the planned second summit meeting between Trump and Putin that had been tentatively scheduled for Budapest.
Lavrov was “absent by agreement” from the meeting and will not lead the Russian delegation at the G20 summit, according to The Moscow Times. “The reason for Putin’s displeasure was the failure of his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump following an unsuccessful conversation between the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio,” according to an English translation of the article published yesterday.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
THE RUNDOWN:
Washington Examiner: What Russia’s desperate struggle to envelop Pokrovsk tells us
Washington Examiner: Coast Guard’s cocaine seizures from sea smugglers hits all-time high under Trump
Washington Examiner: Pentagon official acknowledges little consultation with Senate as lawmakers continue grilling
Washington Examiner: Kazakhstan to join Abraham Accords
Washington Examiner: Trump should be wary of South Korea’s Sino-Russian courting
Washington Examiner: GOP to hold rare weekend Senate session as Democrats split on shutdown deal
Washington Examiner: RSF agrees to US humanitarian ceasefire proposal as government drags feet
Washington Examiner: Foreign agents look to influence conservative think tanks in Trump’s Washington
Washington Examiner: Opinion: The Pentagon’s vital acquisition reform
CNN: Trump admin tells Congress it currently lacks legal justification to strike Venezuela
Wall Street Journal: Trump Expresses Reservations Over Strikes in Venezuela to Top Aides
New York Times: US Sends Attack Aircraft to El Salvador Amid Regional Troop Buildup
CNN: China’s latest aircraft carrier enters fleet as naval competition with the US heats up
The War Zone: Golden Dome Missile Shield Key to Ensuring Nuclear Second-Strike Capability: US Admiral
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Three Air Force MAJCOMs Get New Leaders
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Space Force Rebrands Operations Command as Combat Forces Command
Aviation Week: USAF Inspects KC-135s After Discovering Falsified Certifications
Breaking Defense: L3Harris Exec Says Greece Close to Decision for Electronic Warfare Package on F-16 Upgrade
Defense News: GCAP Fighter Jet Designers Push to Keep Weapons, Drone Options Open
Defense Scoop: Nominee for Pentagon CAPE Director Says Office’s Workforce Is Strained, Needs New Tech
Air & Space Forces Magazine: Former ACC Command Chief Wolfe Tapped as New CMSAF
CNN: Multiple people at Joint Base Andrews fall ill after suspicious package delivered with white powder
THE CALENDAR:
FRIDAY | NOVEMBER 7
10 a.m. — National Institute for Deterrence Studies virtual seminar: “Strategic Stockpile Stewardship: A Retrospective and Forward Look at U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy,” with Don Cook, former deputy administrator for defense programs, National Nuclear Security https://thinkdeterrence.com/events/strategic-stockpile-stewardship
1 p.m. — Council on Foreign Relations virtual discussion: “New Frontiers in Intelligence: The Changing Nature of Espionage, with former National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Director Robert Cardillo; former National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Chief Technology Officer Anthony Vinci; Rebecca Weiner, deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism in the New York City Policy Department; and Barton Gellman, senior adviser to the president of the New York University Law School Brennan Center for Justice https://www.cfr.org/event/new-frontiers-intelligence-changing-nature-espionage
MONDAY | NOVEMBER 10
4 p.m. 1789 Massachusetts Ave. NW — American Enterprise Institute film screening: “The True Cost of Defense,” with Robert Chatfield, CEO, Free to Choose Network; Mackenzie Eaglen, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute; and Kori Schake, director, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute https://www.aei.org/events/the-true-cost-of-defense-a-film-screening
