Free Republic

North Korea has confirmed that dictator Kim Jong Un “gave the order” to bail out Vladimir Putin by sending North Korean troops to fight in Putin’s “holy war” against Ukraine. The troop deal was confirmed at a meeting between North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui and the Kremlin’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. More than 10,000 North Korean troops are reported to be deployed to Russia, with some already in the area of operations. The Pyongyang envoy said: “From the very beginning of the special military operation, respected comrade Chairman of State Affairs Kim Jong Un gave the...

Kiev has the capability to build a nuclear weapon "in a few weeks," a high-ranking Ukrainian official has told Bild, the German tabloid reported on Thursday after Vladimir Zelensky announced his atomic ambitions. Ukraine needs either membership in NATO or nuclear weapons, Zelensky said on Friday in Brussels, arguing in favor of his "victory plan" to end the conflict with Russia. This prompted Bild to reveal that a Ukrainian official involved in weapons procurement told them "a few months ago" that Kiev was willing to go nuclear. "We have the material, we have the knowledge. If the order is given,...

One of Moscow's fighter jets has been shot down by Ukrainian forces, according to a military blogger with links to the Russian air force. Another pro-Moscow milblogger said that the Sukhoi Su-34 aircraft had been downed by a Western-supplied F-16. Neither report has been confirmed and Newsweek has contacted the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment over the unverified claims which have sparked much speculation on social media. The Telegram channel Fighterbomber posted on Saturday a message which looked like a tribute to a lost Su-34 fighter jet. Next to an image of the supersonic medium-range fighter bomber, which...

Russians are furious with Vladimir Putin's regime after Ukraine destroyed an important ammunition depot in Russia on Wednesday. Ukraine fired around 100 drones at the depot in Toropets, in the Tver Oblast of Russia. Kyiv says that Iskander and Tochka-U missiles were stored there alongside bombs and artillery shells. Video footage shared online showed the depot up in flames after the attack. Now, Russians have raged at the authorities for allowing the attack to happen. Posting on a Toropets chatroom on the social media site VK, one woman said: “Why wasn’t the ammunition underground?! What are you doing???? In Kudino,...

Vladimir Putin has awoken to one of the largest bombardments on Moscow and other parts of Russia after 30 months of bloodshed. Ukraine unleashed 144 drones, targeting three airports in the capital and lighting up residential buildings in the region of Moscow, during what the Kremlin called a ‘terrorist attack supported by the UK and US’. Debris from aircraft damaged at least two high-rise buildings in the Ramenskoye district in the early hours of Tuesday, setting several flats on fire. A 46-year-old woman was killed and three people were injured, governor Andrei Vorobyov said on Telegram. He added that 43...

"Russians record a video accusing Putin of treason, demanding his resignation" Kanal13 1.66M subscribers 8-30-2024 2:30 a.m. Minutes 6:08 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgnjPv8BWww

A rattled Vladimir Putin has admitted that Russia is ready for peace talks with Kyiv as Ukraine continues its blistering offensive in Kursk. The Russian despot said at the 2024 Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok today: 'Are we ready to negotiate with them? 'We have never refused to do so, but not on the basis of some ephemeral demands, but on the basis of those documents that were agreed and actually initialled in Istanbul,' referring to a failed peace deal from talks in the Turkish city early on in the war. Although the Kremlin says these conditions for peace talks...

The Ukrainian military has started deploying drones retrofitted with thermite payloads, effectively transforming its lethal fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into potent "flamethrower" weapons. Footage shared by Ukraine's 108th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade shows these drones releasing streams of molten thermite over enemy positions, resulting in large plumes of smoke billowing from the impact zones. The widely circulated video highlights the destructive capability of these modified drones, as the thermite ignites upon contact, creating an inferno capable of obliterating Russian positions. Thermite is still considered less lethal than white phosphorous or napalm. Ukrainian Telegram channels reported that the combat...

The strike on a depot in Kamensky district comes amid an ongoing blaze at an oil storage facility in Proletarsk city. A Ukrainian drone attack has set an oil depot in Russia’s southern region of Rostov alight, the authorities said. On Wednesday, regional Governor Vasily Golubev confirmed the overnight strike, saying on the Telegram messaging app that firefighters were extinguishing the blaze at the depot in Rostov’s Kamensky district, with no casualties reported. Russia’s Ministry of Defence earlier said air defence units destroyed four drones over the region overnight, without mentioning the attack on the oil depot. Three tanks were...

RUSSIA has deployed some 30,000 troops to the new frontline in Kursk as Vladimir Putin desperately tries to fend off Ukraine's forces. Mad Vlad also appears to have called in reinforcements from ally Belarus as their tanks branded with telltale "B" signs mass on the Ukrainian border in an echo of the "Z" used by Russia. Ukraine is holding strong onto 100 towns and settlements inside Kursk after first invading Russia on August 6, more than three weeks ago. Zelensky's forces have also attacked border checkpoints in the Belgorod region, attempting to push into another one of Putin's cities. A...

THIS is the shocking moment Vladimir Putin lost another of his Su-25 planes as it was shot down over Ukraine in the latest humiliating blunder to Russia. The attack aircraft was downed as it was striking Ukrainian positions around Kramatorsk, defenders claimed. Anti-aircraft gunners of the 28th separate mechanised brigade took down the latest Su-25 scalp with a man portable air defence missile, they said. The plane - estimated in £8million by Ukrainian outlet Babel - was low flying and operating with another similar aircraft.

Ukraine on Sunday called on Belarus to pull back what it described as significant levels of Belarusian forces and equipment deployed at their common border. The Ukrainian foreign ministry warned Belarus against making "tragic mistakes" while under pressure from Moscow. A ministry statement urged the Belarus armed forces "to stop unfriendly actions" and withdraw their troops out of range of the border. The ministry said Belarus special forces and former Wagner mercenary fighters were among the troops at the border. Their equipment included tanks, artillery, air defence systems and engineering equipment, located in the Gomel region near Ukraine's northern border.

Ukraine has seized more Russian territory in two weeks than Russia has seized in Ukraine all year. Reinforcements sent by Moscow failed to stop a Ukrainian surprise offensive in Russia’s Kursk region during its second week, creating a dilemma for the Kremlin – to further tap Russia’s invasion force in Ukraine by diverting more battalions to defend Russia, or to throw new conscripts into the war. Moscow has so far kept regular recruits into the armed forces on rotation at home, sending only contract soldiers to the bloody battlefields of Ukraine. But the Kursk offensive has changed that delicate political...

President Vladimir Putin has a message for the Russian region where Ukraine has seized more than 1,000 square kilometers of territory: Don’t blame me. Speaking via videoconference to a meeting of Russian politicians, including the governors of Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions, Putin said the “security issues” that had arisen in Kursk were “problems that are the responsibility of the security forces.” He added that Moscow would work with “local and regional authorities” and “security agencies” to “play a positive role in achieving the goals that we have here.”

This is the moment Ukrainian troops destroyed a pontoon bridge in the Kursk region with a HIMARS strike, which could leave thousands of Russian troops stranded. The pontoon crossing in the border region was built by Putin's army after Ukrainian forces destroyed at least three permanent bridges over western Russia's Seim River in recent attacks. Video footage showed drones chasing down trucks and blowing them up. Drones can also be seen crashing into stationary military vehicles, while aerial footage showed the pontoon bridge being decimated. The footage came as Vladimir Putin accused Ukraine of trying to strike a nuclear power...

The surprise Ukrainian invasion of Russia's Kursk region is intended to create a "buffer zone" between the two countries and further complicate Moscow's cross-border offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday. "It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions," Zelenskyy said in his nightly address, the first public acknowledgment of the offensive's true intent. "This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region," Zelenskyy continued. Ukrainian forces destroyed one bridge in the region this weekend and...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has destroyed a key bridge in Russia's Kursk region and struck a second one nearby, less than two weeks into its stunning cross-border incursion, disrupting Russian supply routes and possibly signaling that its troops are planning to dig in. Russia’s pro-Kremlin military bloggers have acknowledged that the destruction of the first bridge, which spanned the Seim River near the town of Glushkovo, will impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces repelling Ukraine’s incursion, although Moscow could still use pontoons and smaller bridges in the area. Ukraine’s air force chief, Lt. Mykola Oleshchuk, on Friday released...

Russell Bentley, the so-called "Donbass Cowboy" from Texas who fought for the 'Donetsk People's Republic' (DPR), is reported to have been tortured to death in an abandoned mine being used as a concentration camp for 'remotivating' Russian soldiers who refuse to fight. On 8 April 2024, Bentley was kidnapped by DPR soldiers outside the administration building of the Petrovsky district of Donetsk. He was driven away in an unknown direction. On 19 April, his former unit, the Vostok Battalion, confirmed his death. His body has not been found. ASTRA reports that he was electrocuted during torture by men from the...

Russian companies that do business with China have encountered more headwinds in recent days as Chinese banks raised the yuan-ruble exchange rate to capitalize on their neighbor's weakened currency. While the yuan currently buys 12.07 rubles at the Russian central bank's exchange rate, Chinese banks are selling the currency at 13 rubles per yuan, charging a premium over the Russian central bank rate of 12.07 rubles, the Moscow Times reported on Thursday. -snip- Chinese banks are not the first to profit from the ruble's plight. Mongolia and Turkey have for some time converted rubles into yuan several percentage points above...

UKRAINE has blitzed Putin's forces with massive kamikaze drone and missile strikes overnight as Zelensky has vowed to go "even deeper" into Russia. Some 117 drones targeted at least nine regions across Russia, also hitting two crucial airfields in Mad Vlad's territory. One of them includes the Savasleyka military base in the Nizhny Novgorod, home to lethal hypersonic Kinzhal missiles and MiG-31K aircraft used to bomb Ukraine. An aircraft-type drone was seen in the sky ahead of the strike with a total of ten “arrivals” reported. A video from ASTRA media outlet suggests that there was a direct hit. Footage...