Free Republic

Kim Jong-un’s rare decision to blame Russia for battlefield failures in Ukraine is less about Moscow and more about the fragility of his own regime, according to an expert. The North Korean leader has publicly wept for fallen soldiers and aired documents acknowledging heavy losses. North Korea is thought to have contributed around 10,000 soldiers to Vladimir Putin’s war, of which, according to intelligence sources in South Korea, more than 1,000 troops have been killed in action and some 4,000 wounded. Footage shown on Korean Central Television displayed internal military reports signed by Kim. One document stated that “Russian army...

Special Presidential Envoy Keith Kellogg on Monday said he and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff recently advised President Trump that Russia is losing its war on Ukraine — as Moscow has seen more than 1 million casualties while taking less than 1% of Ukrainian territory since November 2022. Speaking at the Yalta European Security Conference in Kyiv, Kellogg revealed he and the chairman, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, each reassured the president of Moscow’s wilting position roughly six weeks ago — shortly before Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska. -snip- “I responded quite forcefully,...

Beijing called Washington's proposal for the G7 and NATO nations to impose tariffs on China and other nations that purchase Russian oil a "typical act of unilateral bullying" and "economic coercion" on Monday, threatening retaliatory actions if the proposal is implemented. According to PTI, as the US and Chinese delegations reassembled in Spain on Monday for the second day of their discussions on trade and economic matters, China rejected the US drive.​ Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Lin Jian stated during a routine news briefing that China's regular energy and economic cooperation with nations worldwide, including Russia, is acceptable, legal, and...

Donald Trump's special envoy to Ukraine said the United States would 'kick Russia's a*s' on the battlefield in the event of all-out war. Keith Kellogg, the U.S Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, and a retired lieutenant general, suggested Vladimir Putin's rhetoric was overblown during a meeting in Kyiv. 'We had a discussion recently in the Oval [Office] where... they were talking about the primacy of the Russian military and how they were pretty good,' he told British historian Niall Ferguson. 'And I said to the people in the room: "We'd kick their a*s." 'I mean by that, don't take...

Driving a taxi in the Russian capital was never very lucrative for Said, a Tajik migrant living in the Moscow region, but it paid the bills. Now, he says, the price of gasoline has jumped by more than 30 percent in recent weeks -- from 45 rubles a liter to 60. All told, his daily take-home pay is just three-quarters of what he used to net, he says; he can barely cover living expenses. "You work, and you pay your rent, and you pay for your gas -- those are all your expenses," he told RFE/RL, asking only to be...

Official Moscow spoke about the prospects of trilateral talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, APA's Moscow bureau reports. "There is no progress towards holding a trilateral summit." "So far, there is no progress. The summit on Ukraine should be well prepared, but Kyiv and Europe are not ready to see this preparation," the Russian president's press secretary emphasized.

Russia is losing the war, said US President Donald Trump's special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, APA reports. "Trump asked me if Russia was winning the war. I told him Russia was not winning the war. If Putin had won, he would have been in Kiev. He would have been in Odessa, on the western bank of the Dnieper, and he would have changed the Ukrainian government. Russia is losing the war," Kellogg claimed. The US President's special representative also spoke about nuclear weapons. "This is not the Russia I knew during the Cold War, the Soviet Union. This is...

Polling shows Zelensky trailing rivals, mired in corruption woes, and stalling peace talks—his halo fading fast at home and abroad. You won’t hear this from the mainstream press, but you’ll hear it here first: Volodymyr Zelensky, the Western media’s darling, is in real political trouble at home. I just commissioned credible polling from inside Ukraine. The war-weary population there wants a new president and a negotiated peace. This reality makes Zelensky less a heroic statesman and more a vulnerable incumbent with a perverse incentive: to keep slow-walking peace, continue milking Western taxpayers, and delay the elections he’s almost certain to...

The 9 September events demonstrate two interlocking realities. First, the prospect of a NATO–Russia war is no longer an abstraction. Moscow has shown a willingness to test NATO directly. Second, the most likely path to such a conflict is not through deliberate escalation but through miscalculation. The means to a wider war exist; the question is which one. Technical failure, human error, or political panic could cause escalation to spiral in a single instant.

Russia on Wednesday strongly condemned the Israeli attack on Qatar's capital Doha, calling it "a gross violation of international law and the UN Charter," and "an assault on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of an independent state." In a statement, the Foreign Ministry emphasized that Israel targeted Qatar's residential district, purportedly aimed at high-ranking members of the Palestinian Hamas movement who were reportedly located there, killing at least six people, including a Qatari police officer and injuring several people. "Russia views this incident as a gross violation of international law and the UN Charter, representing an assault on the sovereignty...

Nato fighter jets have shot down Russian drones over Polish airspace for the first time, after what Warsaw described as an “unprecedented violation” of its territory that led it to trigger emergency consultations in the alliance. The operation in the early hours of Wednesday, during a massive Russian attack on Ukraine, involved Dutch and Polish fighter jets, while German Patriot missiles were put on alert and an Italian early warning aircraft provided support. The alliance said it was “committed to defending every kilometre of Nato territory, including our airspace”. It marks the most serious clash between Russia and the US-led...

The decapitated corpse of a mining company boss has been found in the latest episode of a grizzly string of mysterious deaths among senior Russian executives since the war in Ukraine started. The body of Alexey Sinistyn, CEO of potassium and magnesium mining firm K-Potash Service, was found near Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave on Monday, Russian media reported. The deceased was “found without a head,” state-run news agency RIA Novosti cited law enforcement officials as saying, adding that the body was found under a bridge with a tow rope attached to it.

Horrific footage captured the moment a madman fatally stabbed a Ukrainian refugee from behind as she sat on a train in North Carolina. The sickening attack unfolded on August 22, soon after Iryna Zarutska, 23, boarded a South End light rail train in Charlotte. Cops identified the stabber as homeless man Decarlos Brown Jr., 35, who has a lengthy rap sheet, including an arrest for assaulting his sister. He was seen in the footage watching Zarutska for some time after she sat in the seat in front of him, eventually taking out what appeared to be a blade from his...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Video footage released Friday shows the moments leading up to and following the deadly August stabbing of a woman on the Charlotte light rail. WBTV on Friday, Sept. 5 obtained surveillance video of a deadly stabbing that happened two weeks earlier on the Lynx Blue Line light rail system in Charlotte, North Carolina. You can watch our edit of that video below. At around 9:50 p.m. on Aug. 22, a light rail passenger stabbed Iryna Zarutska, 23, several times. Officials said she was stabbed in the throat at least one time. Zarutska was pronounced dead on...

If a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine ever comes together, the United States could take the lead role in monitoring a large buffer zone inside Ukraine envisioned as a way to protect the country from Russia, according to four people familiar with a plan that military officials from Ukraine’s allies, including the United States, have been discussing. -snip- On the latter front, the United States is discussing with Ukraine a deal that could be worth around $100 billion, under which Kyiv would be able to buy American weapons, while in exchange the United States would get intellectual property rights...

The attack comes as Russia suffers fuel shortages following Ukrainian attacks that have cut 20 percent of Russia's oil refining capacity. Ukraine struck several Russian oil facilities overnight Friday, including one if its largest refineries and an oil depot, worsening the country’s crippling fuel shortages. Ukrainian drones targeted facilities including Russia's largest Rosneft refinery in Ryazan and an oil depot in occupied Luhansk Oblast, according to Ukraine's chief drone warfare commander Robert Brovdi. Images of the attack on social media that appeared to show a massive fireball erupting immediately after the strike.

Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the Central Bank is “struggling” to lower interest rates without sparking new inflation, warning that a sharp cut would drive up prices. Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, he said, “If inflation overwhelms the economy, nothing good will come of it.” The remarks come amid concerns over a slowing economy. Sberbank chief German Gref said this week that Russia has entered “technical stagnation,” arguing the current 18% key rate must drop closer to 12% to stimulate recovery, News.Az reports, citing foreign media. Official data shows annual inflation eased to 8.8% in July,...

Vladimir Putin has been issued a stark warning about the state of Russia's economy. It comes after one of his close allies and head of the biggest bank in Russia, German Gref, urged him to enforce immediate measures to avoid a recession. Gref, the CEO of Sberbank, warned Putin that the country's wartime economy is stagnating. Military spending in Russia has hit record highs since the invasion of Ukraine, causing inflation and high interest rates. The economy is also suffering from a shortage of workers due to the mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of men into the military.

President Vladimir Putin denied on Friday that Russia's economy was stagnating, despite a report from the central bank that suggests it is technically in recession. In a speech to an economic forum in the Pacific port of Vladivostok, Putin defended the central bank's use of very high interest rates, currently at 18%, to tackle inflation - a stance fiercely criticised by business leaders and bankers. A graph published in a central bank report this week showed Russia's gross domestic product shrank for two consecutive quarters, a standard definition of what economists call a technical recession. Sberbank CEO German Gref, one...

U.S. President Donald Trump told European leaders on Thursday that Europe must stop purchasing Russian oil that he said is helping Moscow fund its war against Ukraine, a White House official said. Trump joined a call of the "Coalition of the Willing" countries, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, who were meeting on security guarantees for Kyiv in the event of a peace deal with Russia. "President Macron and European leaders called President Trump into their ‘Coalition of the Willing’ meeting. President Trump emphasized that Europe must stop purchasing Russian oil that is funding the war — as Russia received...