Free Republic

We live in a world created in 1945. The United States is the world’s dominant political, economic, and military power. We treat those facts as if they are somehow immutable. They are not. We are standing on the brink of losing it all. The Biden administration continues to blunder forward with its reckless policy of escalation in Ukraine treating the entire enterprise as if it were a video game of some sort. There are in the minds of these men and women no consequences for their actions. Only the other side takes losses. Only the other side feels pain. ......

ON THE ROAD The air-raid siren sounded again through the defiant city, but William McNulty refused to be bothered by it. After a long morning of meetings in Kyiv with Ukrainian partners in need of medical tourniquets and cold-weather clothing, the man had earned an afternoon nap. The air flowing through the hotel room’s open window nipped of brittle autumn, and sunlight was leaking through gray clouds; winter, as the Ukrainians liked to quip, was coming. F**k it, McNulty thought. The chances of getting hit by a drone strike in a city of three million people seemed low. A U.S....

Ukraine needs from 40 to 48 billion US dollars in financing to support the economy in 2023, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.She also noted that the IMF is working on a program with Ukraine and supports it in conducting a “war economy”. The work is being carried out jointly with the USA and the EU.The IMF chief previously described the invasion of Ukraine as the “single most important negative factor” for the economy in 2022.

Both Moscow and Kiev appeared to have been ready for a ceasefire, Naftali Bennett says. Peace might’ve been agreed between Russia and Ukraine shortly after the start of the conflict, but Kiev’s Western backers blocked the negotiations between the two neighbors, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who mediated those contacts, has said. Bennet, who gave an almost five-hour-long video interview to Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday, claimed that his efforts as a middleman came close to succeeding as both Moscow and Kiev appeared to be ready to make concessions and agree to a truce. Read more: Azerbaijan unveils recent...