Free Republic

In July, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the country's low birth rate was "catastrophic" for Russia's future. Russia's birth rate is at its lowest since 1999 with the number of live births falling under 100,000 in June, causing concern in Moscow over what has been described as a severe population downswing. From January to June of 2024, 599,600 children were both in Russia — 16,000 less than the same period in 2023, according to data published by Russia's governmental statistic agency Rosstat. Over the same period, Russia's population decline accelerated by 18%, with 49,000 more deaths recorded in 2024 than...

Russian forces lost almost 1,400 fighters and 50 artillery systems in the past day as the Kremlin pushes forward to threaten a key Ukrainian city in the country's eastern Donetsk region and Kyiv holds its grip on swathes of Russia's southern Kursk region. Moscow sustained 1,380 casualties between Monday and Tuesday bringing the tally of total Russian casualties to 627,790. Updated figures on Tuesday put Russia's artillery losses at 50 over the past day—with a total of 17,880 systems lost during Russia's full-scale invasion of the country, which began in February 2022.