Free Republic

After a year of hard fighting there are a rush of observers trying to make sense of the current balance of power in Ukraine. The focus in often on (often small) movements in the frontlines, casualties, or the performance of particular platforms and systems. Those things matter, but wars are not generally fought to take individual trenches or solely to inflict casualties. They are fought for strategic objectives. In this episode I dig into Russia's history of Empire, its modern strategic objectives, and try to assess whether or not the war in Ukraine represents a success or failure by Russia's...

Russia is suffering its highest daily casualty rate in Ukraine since the start of the war, according to UK officials. Vladimir Putin’s forces are losing 824 troops a day as the first anniversary of the start of the conflict approaches, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) believes. In the first week of the war, Moscow was suffering an average of 1,140 casualties a day, figures compiled by the general staff of the Ukraine army suggested. That dropped to 173 a day last July, but has been climbing steadily since then. In their latest intelligence update on the war, the MoD said:...

The New York Times called it a “mystery,” but the United States executed a covert sea operation that was kept secret—until now The U.S. Navy’s Diving and Salvage Center can be found in a location as obscure as its name—down what was once a country lane in rural Panama City, a now-booming resort city in the southwestern panhandle of Florida, 70 miles south of the Alabama border. The center’s complex is as nondescript as its location—a drab concrete post-World War II structure that has the look of a vocational high school on the west side of Chicago. A coin-operated laundromat...

The illegal invasion of Ukraine has shown we cannot take risks with our defence capabilities especially when Russia is involved. Putin invaded Ukraine because he thought the West is militarily and politically weak, and he was right. All talk in Westminster and Whitehall has been about cutting soldiers and tank numbers for the past few years – cyber and space technologies are the answer apparently. But mass armour and soldiers have a quality all of their own, as the Ukraine war is showing. You still need boots on the ground to take and hold ground – no amount of cyber...

Ukraine has reported that more than 1,000 Russian troops were killed on Monday alone as the war between the neighboring countries approaches its first anniversary. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a Telegram post that 1,030 Russian personnel were killed in fighting, raising the total throughout the conflict to just more than 133,000. Ukrainian forces also destroyed 14 tanks and 28 armored personnel vehicles, officials said. Reuters reported that the number of Russian soldiers killed made Monday the deadliest 24 hours of the war for Russia so far, but it could not independently verify Ukraine’s claims. It also reported that...

Nearly one year into the war between Russia and Ukraine, Americans’ support for Ukraine holds steady. A stable 65% of U.S. adults prefer that the United States support Ukraine in reclaiming its territory, even if that results in a prolonged conflict. Meanwhile, 31% continue to say they would rather see the U.S. work to end the war quickly, even if this allows Russia to keep its territory. These data are from a Gallup web survey conducted Jan. 3-22, while the Russia-Ukraine conflict was at a relative stalemate and negotiations were underway among the U.S., Germany and other Western allies, who...