Free Republic

The intellectually honest political watcher knows that overall Ukraine represents the largest international money laundering operation to shift wealth from taxpayers to the politically connected institutions, since COVID-19. The money is the motive to continue the conflict.With President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin scheduled to meet in Alaska for a summit to negotiate a ceasefire, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz quickly organizes a meeting between EU leaders and the U.K to figure out how the keep the war going.As the industrial capital of the EU, Germany has a lot at stake given the nature of their contracting economy. The EU military...

Washington is “done with the funding” of Ukraine’s war against Russia, JD Vance, the US vice-president, has said, as Europe scrambles to build a united defence before in-person negotiations between Presidents Trump and Putin.Speaking in an interview after an emergency summit with European and Ukrainian officials, co-hosted by David Lammy at Chevening, the foreign secretary’s mansion in Kent, Vance said Americans were fed up with paying towards the cost of the war.“What we said to the Europeans is simply, first of all, this is in your neck of the woods. This is in your back door,” he told Fox News....

Location matters, former real estate mogul US President Donald Trump said. Moments later he announced Alaska, a place sold by Russia to the United States 158 years ago for $7.2 million, would be where Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to sell his land deal of the century, getting Kyiv to hand over chunks of land he’s not yet been able to occupy.The conditions around Friday’s summit so wildly favor Moscow, it is obvious why Putin leapt at the chance, after months of fake negotiation, and it is hard to see how a deal emerges from the bilateral that does not...

European powers and Ukraine responded to Vladimir Putins cease-fire plan on Saturday with a counterproposal that they say must serve as a framework so that upcoming talks between President Trump and the Russian leader can gain traction, according to two European officials familiar with the talks. -snip- The European proposal includes demands that a cease-fire must take place before any other steps are taken. It also says that territory can be exchanged only in a reciprocal manner—meaning that if Ukraine pulls out of some regions, Russia must withdraw from others. “You can’t start a process by ceding territory in the...

Public sours on Washington, loses hope for quick NATO accession LONDON — Most Ukrainians now favor ending the war with Russia through negotiations, as support for fighting until victory has dropped sharply since the early days of the conflict. Although their hopes for joining NATO and the European Union have faded and approval of U.S. leadership has plummeted, Ukrainians still see the EU, U.K. and U.S. as key to ending the war. Yet, most doubt that will happen anytime soon.More than three years into the war, Ukrainians’ support for continuing to fight until victory has hit a new low. In...

A bilateral meeting between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin could happen as soon as next week, according to a White House official. White House special envoy Steve Witkoff returned from Moscow on Wednesday and relayed to President Trump that Putin would like to meet with him, the official said. In response, Trump indicated he is open to that if Putin also meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the official added. Witkoff met with Putin for several hours on Wednesday ahead of the Friday deadline imposed by Trump for Russia to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine or...

As the Russian advances accelerate for fourth straight month, Ukrainians have lost the strongholds of Donetsk region’s Toretsk and Chasov Yar, and the Russians have also entered the city of Kupyansk, on the northern Kharkov region. In the meantime, the siege of Pokrovsk continues, and even Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky had to confirm that ‘small groups’ of the Russian Armed Forces are ‘breaking through’ to Pokrovsk. As August arrives, the attackers advanced on the Sukhetsky suburb north of Rodinsky. Slavyangrad reported: “At the moment, it seems that the deepening of the defense crisis of the Armed Forces of Ukraine...

More than 120 firefighters were trying to extinguish a blaze at an oil depot in the Russian city of Sochi that was sparked by a Ukrainian drone attack, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev has said on the Telegram messaging app. In the Krasnodar region, where Sochi is located, a fuel tank with a capacity of 2,000 cubic metres was on fire, Russia's RIA news agency reported on Sunday, citing emergency officials. Rosaviatsia, Russia's civil aviation authority, said on Telegram that flights were halted at Sochi's airport to ensure air safety. The attack, which Kondratyev said was in the Adler district of...

Evil Vladimir Putin suffered a huge blow after Ukraine launched dramatic strikes on the dictator's oil refineries, defence plants, a military airfield, and radar facilities. These huge hits came after Donald Trump ordered two nuclear submarines to move closer to Russia after "provocative" threats of war with the US came from Russia's former president Dmitry Medvedev. In a dramatic dawn strike, a huge fireball explosion hit military-linked Novokuybyshevsk oil refinery in Samara region with mushroom-shaped flames rising into the sky. -snip- Another key oil refinery in Ryazan - crucial for supplies to capital city Moscow - was also in flames....

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia has started production of its newest hypersonic missiles and reaffirmed its plans to deploy them to ally Belarus later this year. Sitting alongside Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Valaam Island near St. Petersburg, Putin said the military already has selected deployment sites in Belarus for the Oreshnik intermediate range ballistic missile.… Putin has praised the Oreshnik’s capabilities, saying its multiple warheads that plunge to a target at speeds up to Mach 10 are immune to being intercepted and are so powerful that the use of several of them in one...

Even after the Ukraine war ends, Russia will continue to pose a threat to its neighbours unless the world works to “change the Regime” in Moscow, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday morning. Russia’s leadership is mentally “stuck in another era” and rejects the “post World War Two” world order, warned President Zelensky as he called for regime change against Moscow to remove the threat permanently. Addressing an Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) conference remotely by a video link plagued with technical difficulties, when he could be heard the Ukrainian leader decried fresh overnight airstrikes by...

...a recruit can get up to 5.2m roubles (£47,000) in the first year of service, plus up to 4m roubles for injuries. ...he stormed out, drunk, upset and barefoot - with a plastic bag containing their savings in cash. ...stopped by the traffic police who noticed the bag and demanded a bribe. They took almost everything - 2.66m roubles (£24,000).

A Russian missile hit a Ukrainian army training ground, killing three soldiers and wounding 18 others, authorities said, in the latest attack to embarrass military officials as they struggle to make up a severe manpower shortage in the nearly 3½-year war. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the strike killed or wounded about 200 Ukrainian troops. The ministry said that Ukraine’s 169th training center near Honcharivske in the Chernihiv region was hit with two Iskander missiles, one armed with multiple submunitions and another with high explosives. A Russian Defense Ministry video showed multiple small explosions apparently caused by a missile...

Western arms makers aren't just sending weapons to Ukraine these days; they're moving in. As Russia's war drags on, NATO defense companies are opening offices, setting up new production lines, and working closely with Ukrainian partners inside the country at war. For Ukraine, the payoff is that it gets faster, more customized firepower. For the West, it's access to something money can't usually buy: real-time lessons in modern warfare. Ukraine's defense industry is offering hard-earned insights, and NATO countries are able to bring those secrets home before they need to use them themselves. Talking with Business Insider, representatives of Ukraine's...

When Russia invaded Ukraine, its primary objective was not just territorial expansion—it was the outright elimination of Ukraine’s independent government. Russian leader Vladimir Putin even claimed that the bloodshed caused by Russia’s invasion is “fully and wholly” the responsibility of “the ruling Ukrainian regime” in his address on February 24, 2022. As Ukraine’s political and military heart, Kyiv was the ultimate target. Historically, the fall of a nation’s capital has often signaled the collapse of its government and the end of organized defense. Russia’s plan closely mirrored the Blitzkrieg tactics of Nazi Germany in 1940, when swift mechanized assaults and...

President Donald Trump abruptly reversed course earlier this month when he decided to send Patriot missiles, along with other possibly offensive weaponry, to Ukraine, provided that European nations pay the United States for them. Trump also announced that he would place 100 per cent tariffs on Russia if, after 50 days, Russian President Vladimir Putin had failed to move to a ceasefire. The shift irritated some on the American Right, who wish to see Europe do more on a war which directly affects them, but it pleased the Ukrainian government and pro-Ukrainian voices in the United States. But for some...

President Donald Trump made an announcement Monday aligning him more firmly with Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion than ever before. The US will send weapons to Ukraine through NATO, the president said during a meeting in the Oval Office with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Trump also laid out a new deadline for Russia — threatening trade consequences, including secondary sanctions, if a peace deal isn’t reached in 50 days. Even before the weapons announcement, which the president had telegraphed last week, the hawks were celebrating. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina previewed the announcement Sunday as a “turning...

President Donald Trump has finally lost patience with Vladimir Putin. Having promised a “major” announcement on Russia, Trump has now confirmed that the US will dramatically increase weapons supplies to Europe for use in Ukraine and threatened 100 per cent secondary tariffs on Russia’s trade partners. Trump would only provide Russia with an off-ramp if Putin agreed to a ceasefire in Ukraine within 50 days.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. will have to send more weapons to Ukraine, just days after ordering a pause in critical weapons deliveries to Kyiv. The comments by Trump appeared to be an abrupt change in posture after the Pentagon announced last week that it would hold back delivering to Ukraine some air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons because of what U.S. officials said were concerns that stockpiles have declined too much. “We have to,” Trump said. ”They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now. We’re going...

The dominant Western narrative that Europe can arm Ukraine to victory against Russia is a “dangerous fantasy.” Europe’s defense industrial base is too hollowed out, its weapons production timelines too long, and its political will too fragile to offset Russia’s formidable military and industrial might.