Free Republic

Right after Russia invaded Ukraine, TV talk show hosts here were confidently predicting that within days Russian troops would be marching through Kyiv. That was nearly nine months ago. This week the same presenters were grim faced as they announced the army's "difficult decision" to withdraw Russian forces from Kherson - the only Ukrainian regional capital Russia had managed to capture and occupy since invading Ukraine on 24 February. Just six weeks ago, President Putin had claimed to have annexed Kherson region, along with three other Ukrainian territories, insisting that they would be part of Russia forever. ...pro-war Russian military...

Totally new batches of one of Russia's most modern tanks arriving on trains, again totally new.I mean, you read all this noise about the West sending tanks to Ukraine as if they were modern, they were in new or like-new condition, they were going to arrive tomorrow morning, and Ukrainian HMFIC Commodamir Ichabodovich Zelenski was going to start to win by using them beginning at noon on the same day...And what do we see in real life??

A Ukrainian commander said the situation in Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine, is "critical" and that there are more Russian troops surrounding the city than there is ammunition to kill them all.Volodymyr Nazarenko, a deputy commander in the National Guard of Ukraine, told Ukrainian NV Radio that the fighting is currently going on "round the clock" as Russians relentlessly push to capture the city, according to a translation from Reuters."They take no account of their losses in trying to take the city by assault," Nazarenko said, adding that Ukrainian troops are trying to "inflict as many losses on the...

There are just two roads out of Bakhmut for Ukrainian troops. Russian forces are within rocket range of both of them. And that means that, after nine months of brutal fighting, the battle for Bakhmut is entering what could be its decisive phase. In the coming hours or days, it’s possible one of two things will happen. The Russians advance so close to the two roads that the Ukrainians retreat in order to avoid encirclement. Or the Ukrainians counterattack and push back the Russians. The former would resolve the long, awful fight over Bakhmut. The latter would prolong it. In...

Ukrainian president Zelensky just admitted that American troops will be needed to keep Ukraine from total collapse. At the same time NATO announces Ukraine will become a member of the alliance before too long. This is a non-starter for Russian President Putin. Colonel Douglas MacGregor joins Redacted host Clayton Morris for the very latest developments. Video at link.

Hungary’s reputation as the troublemaker of Europe will be burnished on Wednesday as its parliament begins debating a contentious issue: whether to give Finland and Sweden the green light to join NATO. Along with Turkey, Hungary has yet to ratify the applications of Finland and Sweden to join the transatlantic defense alliance more than eight months after NATO leaders signed off on their membership bid at a summit in Madrid. Máté Kocsis, head of Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party caucus in parliament, said last week that a “serious debate” had now emerged over the accession of the two countries. Hungary now...