Free Republic

It would be hard to image a more fitting symbol of Russia’s declining military fortunes than the sight of a solitary Stalin-era tank trundling across Red Square during the country’s traditional Victory Day celebrations on May 9. For the past two decades, Vladimir Putin has used Victory Day to showcase modern Russia’s resurgence as a military superpower, with dozens of the very latest tanks typically taking part in each annual parade. This year, however, the only tank on display was a T-34 model dating back to World War II. Inevitably, the embarrassing absence of tanks at this year’s Victory Day...

'In the absence of ammunition they're doomed to perish senselessly,' Yevgeny Prigozhin saysYevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Russia's Wagner Group mercenary force, said in a sudden and dramatic announcement on Friday that his forces would pull out of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut that they have been trying in vain to capture since last summer. Prigozhin said they would withdraw on May 10 — ending their involvement in the longest and bloodiest battle of the war — because of heavy losses and inadequate ammunition supplies. He asked defence chiefs to insert regular army troops in their place. "I declare on behalf...

The video, originally 11 minutes long, starts with the Ukrainian forces turning off from a stretch of open land. Around the bunker are dead and dying trees. Smoke billows in the distance. The forces - claimed to be among the best trained and equipped of the volunteer corps - enter a bunker dug into the ground and speak with allied soldiers. A fallen soldier is identified and one reflects, 'yes brother, that's how it is in war'. The soldiers take a moment of respite in the trench as one - later called 'Lekha' - digs into the ground at the...

Due to heavy losses of military equipment since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia starts to deploy WWII-era equipment; in addition, the occupiers also have a shortage of manpower.Source: Western officials reported this on a briefing on Tuesday, 18 April, on the condition of anonymity, reports European Pravda, with a reference to CNNAccording to Western officials, there was no "large uptick in increasing equipment" on the battlefield from the Russian side. "If anything, the equipment they (the Russians – ed.) are using is the older generation.""They started with the T-80 and T-90 [tanks], went down to T-72,...