Free Republic

Four years after the liberation of Bucha, the town remains a central reference point for understanding the nature of the war in Ukraine and the limits of current diplomatic efforts. The events that followed the withdrawal of Russian forces in March 2022, when hundreds of civilians were found dead across the Kyiv suburb and the wider region, continue to shape how Ukraine defines both security and peace. Bucha has become more than a historical episode. It functions as a political and moral benchmark in discussions about any future settlement. Ukrainian authorities report over 400 civilian deaths in the town itself...

Ukraine should not hold elections this year, officials from the country’s electoral commission have concluded, setting Kyiv on a collision course with the United States. Members of the official working group on elections were due to present draft legislation to parliament late last month, but told The Times they had yet to resolve key questions on how to secure fair elections free from Russian attacks or interference. They plan to continue deliberating on the issue until at least the end of May. The group has agreed, however, that Ukraine should only enter a campaign period at least six months after...

For decades, Western military doctrine has rested on a comforting assumption: technological superiority would guarantee dominance on the battlefield. Advanced missile defenses, integrated sensor networks, and sophisticated command systems were supposed to create something close to an impenetrable shield over the world’s most developed nations. The ongoing confrontation between Israel and Iran is beginning to challenge that assumption. Israel fields one of the most advanced missile defense architectures ever constructed. Its layered system — including Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and the Arrow interceptors — was designed to counter a wide spectrum of threats, from short-range rockets to long-range ballistic missiles....

Volodymyr Zelensky today appeared to tacitly attack Donald Trump for easing sanctions on Russian oil to cut prices hammered by his attack on Iran. The Ukrainian president used a speech in Parliament to thank the UK for keeping up pressure on 'wealthy madman' Vladimir Putin despite fresh fighting in the Middle East. Last week Trump signed a one-month sanction waiver allowing countries to buy Russian oil currently floating around in tankers unable to dock anywhere. It was designed to ease prices that spiked when Iran put a block on shipping transiting the Straits of Hormuz off its south coast. In...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office reached out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to request a phone call, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel. The official does not say what Netanyahu wishes to discuss. According to Ynet, Netanyahu wants to discuss cooperating on countering Iranian drones, which Ukraine has been facing for years.

A Russian missile strike on port infrastructure in Odesa in southern Ukraine killed eight people and wounded 27, Ukraine’s emergency service said Saturday, as a a Kremlin envoy was set to travel to Florida for talks on a U.S.-proposed plan to end the nearly four-year war, The discussions are part of the Trump administration's monthslong push for peace that also included meetings with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin earlier this week. Ukraine's chief negotiator said late Friday that his delegation had completed separate meetings in the U.S. with American and European partners. Meanwhile, European Union leaders agreed on Friday...

Russian forces occupied Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, for just under a month. Across those 29 days in early 2022, they committed acts of such barbarity that this Ukrainian town will forever be synonymous with war crimes; this conflict’s Srebrenica. Residents were killed and tortured in their hundreds; more than 100 were buried in a mass grave outside the Orthodox Christian church. Others were murdered as they fled. The basement of a children’s summer camp was converted into a torture chamber where women and children were systematically raped. Soldiers slashed throats, mutilated victims and killed parents in front of...

The decision, affecting hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. military aid, has alarmed NATO allies and upset U.S. lawmakers who strongly back the alliance.The Trump administration intends to halt longtime security assistance programs for Europe, including an initiative to fortify the continent’s eastern flank against a potential attack by Russia, as it endeavors to recast Washington’s role within NATO, according to six people familiar with the matter.The decision would impact hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military aid relied upon by some of the alliance’s most vulnerable members. It has alarmed U.S. allies struggling to comprehend the administration’s...

Russia unleashed a sweeping aerial assault across Ukraine late Wednesday, pounding Kyiv with ballistic missiles and swarms of drones — killing at least 14 people, including 3 children and injuring over 20. “Many people are under the rubble, [including] children,” Andriy Yermak, top advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, told The Post. The barrage began around 9:30 p.m., setting off air raid sirens and prompting urgent shelter notification warnings in nearly every region nationwide. Missiles, drones, and bombs were spotted throughout the country, particularly in Kyiv, but also in western regions of the country where attacks have been rarer. At...

Moscow's decision will likely be seen as inconsequential given growing condemnation of widespread human rights abuses committed in Ukraine. Russia plans to formally withdraw from Europe's convention against torture and inhuman treatment, according to a decree published this week. The resolution by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin calls upon President Vladimir Putin to submit the withdrawal from the treaty to Russia's lower house of parliament. Moscow's move is likely to be seen as moot given widespread criticism of its worsening human rights record since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In 2024, UN-backed experts presented evidence that Russia...

Hey Republicans, it’s time to get out the shovels and dig a very deep hole. Then bury forever the stench and false innuendo coming from the Jeffrey Epstein case. Especially now that the dead monster’s cohort, Ghislaine Maxwell, has told the Justice Department that she never once saw President Trump “acting inappropriately in any way” and that he “was never inappropriate with anybody” despite a long association with Epstein. Those should be the final words of the sordid saga and give the GOP the confidence to stop runnin’ scared on the subject and drop its foolish obsession with the case....

The number of dead and seriously wounded Ukrainians is apparently much higher than imagined.Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine some three and a half years ago, the Western media has promoted a non-stop barrage of disinformation about the military developments, trying to present a rosier picture than reality can afford.Perhaps no other aspect of the hostilities has been so blatantly misrepresented as the number of casualties and fatalities.We got to the point where Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky had the nerve to say that Ukraine had had 35 thousand losses.That is particularly absurd since we know that Kiev’s...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia's refusal to agree to a ceasefire is complicating efforts to end the war. "We see that Russia rebuffs numerous calls for a ceasefire and has not yet determined when it will stop the killing. This complicates the situation," he said in a statement on 'X'. On Monday, the Ukrainian leader travel to Washington DC, where US President Donald Trump has said he will urge Zelensky to agree to a peace deal. Trump has said he wants to bypass a ceasefire in Ukraine to move directly to a permanent peace agreement after his...

Any agreement between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin following their historic summit could leave Ukraine in an impossible position after three years of brutal, grinding war for survival. While no deal was struck when they met in Alaska on Friday, the two leaders are believed to have discussed the possibility of Ukraine giving up territory in exchange for an end to the fighting. That would effectively be an annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory by Russia by force. Russia currently occupies around 19% of Ukraine, including Crimea and the parts of the Donbas region it seized prior to the full-scale invasion...

President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced plans to meet on Monday to hammer out “all of the details” about how to end the Russia-Ukraine war. The meeting in Washington, D.C., marks the next stage of reaching a ceasefire or a more sweeping and final peace deal, which the White House now hopes could be implemented. It is set to come three days after Trump held an Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin seeking to help negotiate an end to the war that ended with “no deal,” although the White House described the friendly encounter as “very...

Tariffs as high as 145 percent were due to be implemented on goods from China at midnight Tuesday. The last-minute extension came hours after Trump provided a vague response to reporters on extending the deadline on Monday. “We’ve been dealing very nicely with China… they have tremendous tariffs that they’re paying to the United States of America,” Trump said during a press conference at the White House. “We’ll see what happens. They’ve been dealing quite nicely. The relationship is very good with President Xi and myself.” Trump signed a new Executive Order later on Monday. China will now have its...

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....

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Saturday the planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning that any peace deal excluding Kyiv would lead to “dead solutions.”The Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a potential breakthrough in the more than three-year war.Trump had previously agreed to meet with Putin even if the Russian leader would not meet with Zelenskyy, stoking fears Ukraine could be sidelined in efforts to stop the continent’s biggest conflict since World War II.In a statement posted to Telegram, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s territorial integrity, enshrined...

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...

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...