Welcome back to The Restricted Handling Podcast — your unfiltered, high-energy global brief straight from the frontlines of geopolitics. In this episode, “RH 11.04.25 | Russia: Pokrovsk Bleeds, Refineries Burn, Nukes Rattle,” we break down one of the most intense 24-hour stretches of the war in Ukraine — and the growing chaos rippling across Moscow, Beijing, and beyond. Buckle up, because today’s rundown feels like the Cold War got a software update. 

We start in Pokrovsk, the embattled eastern Ukrainian city that’s fast becoming the heart of the war’s next major chapter. Russian troops are grinding forward block by block, but Ukraine’s special forces aren’t giving up an inch without a fight. General Oleksandr Syrskyi says Kyiv’s forces are regaining ground near Dobropillia, forcing Moscow to stretch its exhausted units thinner than a Red Square parade smile. You’ll hear how Russia’s desperate bid for “the gateway to Donetsk” has turned into a high-casualty stalemate that feels straight out of a grim history book — and why it matters strategically. 

Then it’s drones, drones, and more drones. Ukraine’s long-range strikes are rewriting the rules of modern warfare — hitting the Rosneft Saratov Oil Refinery yet again and sending explosive payback 1,500 kilometers deep into Russia at Bashkortostan’s Sterlitamak petrochemical plant. These attacks aren’t just symbolic; they’re torching Moscow’s fuel supply chain and hammering Russia’s war economy right where it hurts. We’ll unpack how these strikes fit into Kyiv’s growing asymmetric campaign — and why Russia’s now buying fuel from Belarus and being ghosted by Chinese refiners like Sinopec and PetroChina. 

Speaking of Beijing, Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin is in China doing his best impression of a salesman with bad numbers, trying to convince Xi Jinping and Li Qiang that trade’s just “temporarily down.” Spoiler: it’s not working. Trade between the two countries is dropping, China’s patience is wearing thin, and that “no limits” friendship is looking more like a one-sided situationship. 

But it’s not all oil and diplomacy — Putin’s dusting off his nuclear toys. We cover the latest Russian tests of the Burevestnik and Poseidon systems, Trump’s matching order for U.S. nuclear test readiness, and what this new round of saber-rattling says about global security in 2025. 

Add in spy arrests in Latvia and Kansas, mysterious drone sightings over NATO airbases, and a Russian-Venezuelan defense bromance in the Caribbean, and you’ve got one wild episode. 

If you want global conflict without the fluff — part intelligence brief, part adrenaline shot — this one’s for you.