Free Republic

[Caption:] U.S. Senator John McCain, center, speaks as Democratic Senator from the state of Connecticut, Chris Murphy, second left, and Opposition leader Oleh Tyahnybok [All Ukrainian Union "Svoboda" leader], stand around him during a Pro-European Union rally in Independence Square in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013. Sen. John McCain (R. Ariz.) advocated for sending arms to Ukraine Tuesday [link at URL] on Fox News. McCain acknowledged the arms would not likely enable Ukraine to defeat the Russians in open war, but emphasized it could improve the Ukrainian military's morale and ensure that the Russians would have "a real fight...

Ukraine’s presidential candidate Oleg Tsarev says the new local authorities that Kiev has appointed in the country’s southern and eastern regions rely on militias hired especially for a crackdown on opponents of the new leadership. “This job is being done by militants on the payroll of the local authorities,” Tsarev told the Russian government-published daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta in an interview. “In all regions of Ukraine’s South and East the newly-appointed governors have special deputies in charge of such matters. Each is in command of a group of about two hundred ‘hired soldiers’.” Tsarev said the militias were not necessarily members...

Nato has released satellite images of the Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s eastern border: a powerful concentration of fighter planes, helicopters, artillery, infantry and special forces which officials say could be ready to move with just 12 hours notice. The images appear to undermine official suggestions from Moscow that there is nothing unusual about the troop movements, nor any reason to be alarmed.