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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Friday said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in “the appropriate regions” in response to statements from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
“Based on the highly provocative statements of the Former President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev ... I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” Trump said in a social media post.
He added: “Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances.”
He did not specify what he meant by “nuclear submarines.” Submarines may be nuclear-powered, or armed with nuclear missiles.

It is extremely rare for the US military to discuss the deployment and location of US submarines given their sensitive mission in nuclear deterrence. The US Navy declined comment. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump and Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, have traded taunts in recent days after Trump on Tuesday said Russia had “10 days from today” to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or be hit with tariffs, along with its oil buyers.
Medvedev on Thursday said Trump should remember that Moscow possessed Soviet-era nuclear strike capabilities of last resort, after Trump told Medvedev to “watch his words.”
Moscow, which has set out its own terms for peace in Ukraine, has given no indication that it will comply with Trump’s deadline of August 8.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow hoped for more peace talks with Ukraine but that the momentum of the war was in its favor. He made no reference to the deadline.
Trump, who in the past touted good relations with Putin, has expressed mounting frustration with the Russian leader, accusing him of “bullshit” and describing Russia’s latest attacks on Ukraine as disgusting.
Medvedev has emerged as one of the Kremlin’s most outspoken anti-Western hawks since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022. Kremlin critics deride him as an irresponsible loose cannon, though some Western diplomats say his statements illustrate the thinking in senior Kremlin policy-making circles.
Trump also rebuked Medvedev in July, accusing him of throwing around the “N (nuclear) word” after the Russian official criticized US strikes on Iran and said “a number of countries” were ready to supply Iran with nuclear warheads. “I guess that’s why Putin’s ‘THE BOSS’,” Trump said at the time.
The US president took office in January having promised to end the Ukraine war on Day One, but has not been able to get Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.
Only six countries operate nuclear-powered submarines: the US, the UK, Russia, China, France and India.
The US Navy has 71 commissioned submarines including 53 fast attack submarines, 14 ballistic-missile submarines, and four guided-missile submarines. All of them are nuclear-powered, but only some carry nuclear weapon-tipped missiles.

ABIDJAN: Two militant attacks in northeastern Burkina Faso early this week killed “several dozens” of soldiers and civilians, two security sources and a local source told AFP on Friday.

In a “major” attack carried out on Monday, a military unit in the village of Dargo was targeted by “armed terrorist groups,” leaving “several dozens of deaths on each side,” one of the regional security sources said.

The other security source told AFP that militants waged a second attack on Monday, on a supply convoy going between the towns of Dori and Gorom-Gorom.

“In that ambush, several soldiers were killed, along with civilians, notably truck drivers transporting supplies,” said the source.

A manager in a road haulage company confirmed the convoy attack, and said that “some 20 drivers and their apprentices were killed.”

The attack on the military base was on Tuesday claimed by the JNIM, an armed Islamist militant group affiliated with Al-Qaeda that is active also in Mali and Niger. The group indicated it had killed 40 Burkinabe soldiers.

The JNIM has risen to become the most influential militant threat in the Sahel region, according to the United Nations.

Burkina Faso has been plagued by attacks by the JNIM and the Daesh group since 2015.

Wamaps, a group of West African journalists specializing in Sahel security issues, said the attack on the Dargo base was one of the deadliest attacks against Burkina’s military “in recent weeks.”

In a post on X, the Wamaps group cited local sources as saying that around 50 soldiers were killed.

In the convoy attack, “nearly 200 terrorists” from the Daesh group in the Sahel were believed to have taken part, the group said, adding that “some 15 escort soldiers were killed and more than 10 drivers executed.”