Free Republic

Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first comments on the recent attack by Hamas on Israel during talks in Moscow with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani on Oct. 10. During the meeting, which was filmed by Russian state-owned media, Putin claimed that the situation was "a clear example of the failure of U.S. policy in the Middle East." Putin alleged that the U.S. has not taken into account "the fundamental interests of the Palestinian people," adding that it is necessary to create an "independent sovereign Palestinian state."This requires the implementation of "the decisions of the UN Security Council" on the...

Ukrainian forces raided Crimea and “inflicted fire on the Moscow occupiers,” according to Ukrainian officials, in a campaign to build military pressure on Russia’s forces in the vital occupied peninsula. "There was a battle with the Russian occupiers; many were killed and wounded among the invaders' personnel,” Ukrainian Defense Intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told a Ukrainian outlet. “Unfortunately, there are losses among Ukrainian defenders too, though these are still not as many as among the Russians.” Yusov offered that statement after his colleagues released a video that purports to show Ukrainian special forces members riding jet skis to the Crimean...

A video released today confirms a story that CNN reported a couple weeks ago. Ukrainian special forces were active in Sudan, attacking the local Rapid Support Forces (RSF) which were trying to overthrow the government with the help of Wagner group mercenaries. The video shows Ukrainian snipers and drone attacks on the RSF. (snip) At this point you may be wondering what any of this has to do with Ukraine and why Ukrainian special forces would bother getting involved in this battle in Sudan. The answer is that Wagner forces aren’t in Sudan just to get paid. They are there...

Drunk recruits. Insubordinate soldiers. Convicts. They're among hundreds of military and civilian offenders who've been pressed into Russian penal units known as "Storm-Z" squads and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine this year, according to 13 people with knowledge of the matter, including five fighters in the units. Few live to tell their tale, the people said. (snip) "Storm fighters, they're just meat," said one regular soldier from army unit no. 40318 who was deployed near the fiercely contested city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine in May and June. (snip) Russian state-controlled media has reported that Storm-Z squads exist, that...

Update from Ukraine | Ukraine Advances on the South | Does USA stop the Military Support? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4U0nr-vzi0 The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the recent developments on the battlefield, as of 30th September 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time). [NOTE: two summaries per week, released on Wednesday and Sunday] https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-584-summary/ *** Great interactive maps with viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use for each Front! https://militaryland.net/maps/

Russian authorities accidentally revealed the addresses of the country's secret military buildings, institutions, and spy homes, in Moscow and in St. Petersburg, an investigative site found. The Dossier Center, a project launched by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, found the addresses listed in a 434-page document titled "Special Group", which was published on the Moscow City Hall website. The document listed properties where there must be "no blackouts." The list reportedly included a range of top-secret government facilities, homes belonging to GRU (the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation) officers and President...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKUyN3HQ1bs 580,690 views Sep 25, 2023 Frontline | The War in Ukraine and Global Security "There's not enough soldiers on the front line and so Putin doesn't rotate them out. He doesn't care. 300,000 Russian men have died in this war." Only violence holds Putin in power as he becomes hated by his inner circle and callous about military failures in Ukraine, says Bill Browder on Times Radio's Frontline. ---

Update from Ukraine | The Upcoming Big Landing Operation in Crimea | Ukraine Nails it 766K subscribers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxbGNrs4KZ4 The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the recent developments on the battlefield, as of 30th September 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time). [NOTE: two summaries per week, released on Wednesday and Sunday] https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-584-summary/ *** Great interactive maps with viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use for each Front! https://militaryland.net/maps/

Russia was struck by drone strikes in at least two different regions early on Sunday, Moscow's Defense Ministry has said, as videos circulating online on Sunday seem to show uncrewed aircraft-type drones soaring over Russian soil. One clip, reportedly filmed in Russia's Smolensk region, appears to show an explosion as a drone dips from view... Ukraine targeted Russia's Krasnodar region with an "aircraft-type" drone at around 8 a.m. Moscow time on Sunday, Russia's Defense Ministry said. Six planes scheduled to arrive at Sochi airport, on the Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar region, were diverted to alternative airfields because of...

The slow progress of the counteroffensive Ukraine launched in early June led to criticism that Ukrainian troops were failing to apply properly the training they received from Western militaries. But what if the problem isn't with the Ukrainians but rather with Western tactics? Ukraine's woes may be an omen of what might happen if NATO armies have to fight without ample air support and logistics. Ukraine's counteroffensive was never going to be easy. Russian forces spent months building up their defenses, using a longstanding and still-effective Soviet-era approach to fortifications and adapting new tactics, such as bigger and more concentrated...

Update from Ukraine | Ukraine is ready for Major Attack on the South | Ruzzia in Panic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXP8vvJDjAo The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the recent developments on the battlefield, as of 23rd September 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time).[NOTE: two summaries per week, released on Wednesday and Sunday] https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-577-summary/ *** Great interactive maps with viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use for each Front! https://militaryland.net/maps/

Western experts have repeatedly said that Russia's military in Ukraine has several key failings, including a fear of passing bad news or negative battlefield reports up the command chain to superiors. Putin and his closest advisers "appear to have made little use of economic or military expertise," the report added. The Kremlin leader "has narrowed the funnel of information that reaches him" to cut out any voices that may have given contrary advice, including diplomats and ministers, the RAND analysts argued. Moscow's war effort has also been plagued by reports of purging of Russia's top brass, and reshuffling of the...

Russia's air force has lost 90 planes since the start of the war in Ukraine and is becoming less formidable by overworking its jets, UK intelligence said. The British Ministry of Defence said in its latest daily intelligence update on Thursday that Russia is quickly depleting its fleet of warplanes through overuse because the conflict is dragging on for much longer than anticipated. "All aircraft have a projected lifespan, in flying hours," the update said, adding that it's highly likely that with the extra use, Russia is "eating into many of its airframes' lifespans" far more quickly than planned for....

We asked UC Riverside Professor Paul D’Anieri to provide context on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. D’Anieri, a professor of political science and public policy, is an expert on Eastern European and post-Soviet politics, and wrote a 2019 book titled “Ukraine and Russia,” and a 2007 book, “Understanding Ukrainian Politics: Power, Politics and Institutional Design.” For the 2017-18 academic year, he served as a fellow in the Harvard University Ukrainian Research Institution. UCR Professor Paul D'Anieri is a leading expert and author on the history of Russia-Ukraine relations. Q: The crux of NATO’s present diplomatic tact is sanctions. Can you...

The Russian nation is more dependent on an autocrat and security state than any other European nation, and it has been for centuries — even before the Soviet era — whether it was the streltsy, Preobrazhensky Guard, Okhrana, Cheka, KGB, or siloviki. The wealthy aristocrats, now called oligarchs (previously boyars) never made a serious bid to circumscribe the autocrats’ power, unlike in most European nations; the Russian Orthodox Church has been dependent on the state since at least 1700; and, as for the masses, they have always been viewed as an instrument of the state or a resource to be...

Withdrawing support for Ukraine based on the belief that the war is akin to Vietnam is not supported by history. *snip* President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent a small number of advisers to Vietnam in the late 1950s and early 1960s. President John F. Kennedy, during his 1,000 days in office, increased the number of American advisers from a few hundred to over 16,000 before his death on Nov. 22, 1963. Kennedy’s advisers were integrated into South Vietnamese military units and engaged in actual combat. The year 1961 saw 16 American soldiers killed in Vietnam, the next year saw 53, and...

Russian occupiers tortured Ukrainians so brutally that some of their victims died, and forced families to listen as they raped women next door, members of a U.N.-mandated investigative body said on Monday, in their latest findings from the field. Erik Møse, Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva his team had "collected further evidence indicating that the use of torture by Russian armed forces in areas under their control has been widespread and systematic". "In some cases, torture was inflicted with such brutality that it caused the death of the victim,"...