Free Republic

Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin told a defence conference "there could be war in Sweden". His message was then backed up by military commander-in-chief Gen Micael Byden, who said all Swedes should prepare mentally for the possibility. However, opposition politicians have objected to the tone of the warnings. Ex-prime minister Magdalena Andersson told Swedish TV that while the security situation was serious, "it is not as if war is just outside the door." Children's rights organisation Bris said that its national helpline did not usually receive calls about the possibility of war. But this week, it had seen an increase...

A joint statement by the United States and its partners on Tuesday condemned arms transfers between North Korea and Russia, including what it termed as Russia's procurement of North Korean ballistic missiles and Moscow's use of those against Ukraine on Dec. 30 and Jan. 2. WHY IT IS IMPORTANTBoth Moscow and Pyongyang have drawn closer since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, though they deny making any arms deals. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Far East region last September and senior Russian officials have made several visits to Pyongyang. Last week the White...

Vladimir Putin staged a lavish Orthodox Christmas Eve dinner for children of soldiers killed in Ukraine as he attempted to present himself as a caring leader by ordering officials to do more for the country’s troops. (snip) The Russian leader vowed to back those “with arms in hands” as he hosted Saturday evening’s heavily choreographed event at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence on the outskirts of Moscow. It came as festivities were cancelled in the border region of Belgorod amid continued Ukrainian attacks that have left dozens dead over the past week. “Many of our men, our courageous, heroic men, the soldiers...

A counterintelligence directorate created by former Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin and made famous by the James Bond novels of author and former British spy Ian Fleming has reportedly made a return to Russia. SMERSH is a portmanteau of the Russian for "death to spies," or "smert shpionam." It was announced in 1943 as a move to target Nazi spy rings, traitors and foreign agents during the World War II, before it was disbanded in 1946. Fleming portrayed the group as cold-blooded foes of James Bond. One of his characters was Rosa Klebb—an assassin handy with a flick-knife shoe, who...

Russia's Ramzan Kadyrov once again demanded that the United States lift sanctions against members of his family—and his horses—this time offering Ukrainian prisoners of war in exchange, Russian state media reported on Friday. Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya and Russian President Vladimir Putin's loyal ally, made the offer via former American intelligence officer Scott Ritter, who was visiting Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.(snip)"We have prisoners whom we took in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions," Kadyrov was quoted as telling Ritter, a former U.S. official and, more recently, a Russian media darling. "I am passing on to our guest the list...

A Ukrainian missile strike hit a Russian warship moored in Crimea early on Tuesday, in what appeared to be one of the most significant attacks against Moscow’s prized Black Sea Fleet in months amid Kyiv’s intensified campaign to target the Russian-occupied peninsula. The Ukrainian Air Force said in a statement that it had destroyed the Novocherkassk, a large landing ship, in the southeastern Crimean port of Feodosia overnight. Russia’s Defense Ministry told the Tass state news agency that the ship had been damaged in an attack using “aircraft-guided missiles,” but did not say whether the vessel had been permanently disabled....

A website founded by a former US Marine who now lives in Russia has fuelled a rumour that Volodymyr Zelensky purchased two luxury yachts with American aid money. Despite the false claim, the disinformation plot was successful. It took off online and was echoed by members of the US Congress making crucial decisions about military spending. It was an incredible assertion - using two advisers as proxies, Mr Zelensky paid $75m (£59m) for two yachts. But not only has the Ukrainian government flatly denied the story, the two ships in question have not even been sold. Despite being false, the...

Countries on NATO’s eastern flank have as little as three years to prepare for the likelihood of a Russian attack that could turn them into the next Ukraine, Polish officials warn. Jacek Siewiera, the chief of Poland’s National Security Bureau, said a recent German report warning that NATO’s eastern bloc must be ready to fend off Russia within the next six to 10 years was far “too optimistic. “If we want to avoid war, the NATO countries on the eastern flank should adopt a shorter, three-year time horizon to prepare for confrontation,” he told the Nasz Dziennik newspaper. “This is...

Less than one month before Mike Johnson’s sudden ascent to the speakership, the Louisiana Republican, then a little-known member, joined with most GOP lawmakers to vote against $300 million in U.S. security assistance for Ukraine. Now, as speaker, Johnson has surprised many on Capitol Hill by publicly and repeatedly calling Ukraine aid a critical priority for the House. Where Johnson stands on Ukraine and how hard he plans to push for tens of billions of dollars in new aid could shape the future of the embattled country, just as the U.S. is facing questions about its commitment to Kyiv and...

President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree putting St Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport under the temporary management of a Russian company, wresting control from investors from Germany, Qatar and other Gulf states. The decree, signed late on Thursday, stated that a Russian holding company had been set up to manage the asset, with the rights of German airport operator Fraport (FRAG.DE) and Qatar's sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority among those to be transferred to Russian hands. "We must first verify the information and examine what this means in future for our involvement in St Petersburg, which we have put on...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is urging women to have as many as eight children as the number of dead Russian soldiers continues to rise in his war with Ukraine, worsening the country's population crisis. Addressing the World Russian People's Council in Moscow on Tuesday, Putin said the country must return to a time when large families were the norm. "Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven, eight, or even more children," Putin said. "Let us preserve and revive these excellent traditions. Large families must become the norm, a way of life for all of Russia's people. The family is...

Grain thunders into rail cars and trucks zip around a storage facility in central Ukraine, a place that growing numbers of companies turned to as they struggled to export their food to people facing hunger around the world. Now, more of the grain is getting unloaded from overcrammed silos and heading to ports on the Black Sea, set to traverse a fledgling shipping corridor launched after Russia pulled out of a U.N.-brokered agreement this summer that allowed food to flow safely from Ukraine during the war. “It was tight, but we kept working … we sought how to accept every...

Speaking at the Grain from Ukraine conference in Kyiv on Saturday, Nov. 25, President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that partner countries have committed to transferring warships to Ukraine to enhance the safety of vessels navigating the critical "grain corridor" in the Black Sea. Zelensky hailed the establishment and operation of the "grain corridor" as one of the notable achievements of the year. "We have reached agreements with our partners and will provide sea escorts to ensure the safety of ships," explained President Zelensky during the conference. He emphasized that specific agreements for receiving the warships have already been made, making it...

A Ukrainian artillery commander said that brigades compete to see who can kill the most Russian soldiers as they attempt to cross a heavy-artillery zone in Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine. Fighting has been raging around the small city in the Donetsk oblast as Russian forces have been repeatedly attempting to capture it despite suffering heavy personnel and equipment losses. "I'll even reveal a secret," Arty Green, a Ukrainian artillery commander, told Ukrainian media in an interview published on Monday in Forbes. "There's a competition between our brigades. We strike one target, then we see a neighboring brigade doing the same,...

A Russian-dominated security grouping held a summit in Belarus on Thursday with the absence of one of its members, Armenia, which has been irked by what it sees as a lack of support over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Speaking at the meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, CSTO, Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed what he called the group’s role in securing peace and stability in the region. But in a sign of the widening rift between Russia and Armenia, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan snubbed the summit in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, citing his government’s dissatisfaction with the organization....

A Russian cannibal in a Satanic cult that slaughtered four teenagers — beheading and partially eating two of them — has been pardoned by President Vladimir Putin after fighting against Ukraine in a notorious unit of convicts. Nikolai Ogolobyak, 33, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2010 for murder and desecrating corpses over a series of horrifying ritualistic murders that rocked the Yaroslavl region — where the then-teenager was known as “Count.” Ogolobyak and other Satan worshippers, including one nicknamed “Hitler,” beheaded two of their four victims — then cut out their hearts and tongues which they then...

In his first address to officials from the Group of 20 leading economies since his invasion of Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin on Wednesday rebuffed criticism that the war’s aggression was “shocking” and accused Western nations of a double standard because of their response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Appearing at a virtual meeting of the G20, he called the war in Ukraine “a tragedy” that must be stopped and said Russia had “never refused” to engage in peace negotiations. For Mr. Putin, it was a rare interaction with Western leaders since the start of the war last...

Russia barred entry to a number of officials from Moldova on Monday and complained about moves by its pro-European government to block Russian media outlets ahead of local elections earlier this month. The moves were the latest in a series of acerbic exchanges between the two sides and allegations by Moldova that Russia has been exerting pressure on the ex-Soviet state's affairs and President Maia Sandu's drive to join the European Union. A Russian foreign ministry statement said Moldovan Ambassador Lilian Darie was summoned to be told of the decision. "The Moldovan side was presented with a decisive protest in...

Polish President Andrzej Duda expressed support for Ukraine's accession to NATO and the EU in a video address posted to the platform X on Nov. 21. The message of support arrived on the 10th anniversary of Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, a grassroots social uprising that grew out of pro-EU demonstrations in the fall of 2013. Duda congratulated Ukraine on the European Commission's recommendation to begin EU accession talks and said Poland would continue to support Ukrainian sovereignty in its fight against Russian aggression. "Because no one understands better than the Poles what a high price to pay for freedom and...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has lost count of assassination attempts he’s survived, comparing them to bouts of Covid. In an interview with the British tabloid The Sun, he said that he’s survived "no fewer" than five or six attempts on his life since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, but that each subsequent attempt makes it less intimidating. NBC News could not independently verify Zelenskyy’s claims about attempts on his life. “The first one is very interesting, when it is the first time, and after that it is just like Covid,” Zelenskyy said. “First of all, people don’t know...