Free Republic

The news release came after Russia said earlier in the day that it was seeking stability in the country, in which it has won significant influence since Goita’s military government took power in a coup in 2021. West Africa’s al-Qaeda affiliate and the Tuareg separatist group on Saturday hit Mali’s main army base and the area near Bamako’s airport, while driving Russian soldiers – deployed in support of government forces – out of Kidal in the north. ... The same day, the Russian Ministry of Defence issued a statement declaring that its paramilitary forces had ‌‌helped prevent a coup during...

British monarchs deliver their political messages in code — and the reference we just heard Charles make to 9/11 is worth unpacking. “In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time … we answered the call together, as our people have done so for more than a century, shoulder to shoulder,” the king said. Make no mistake — this is a carefully targeted rebuff to Trump and his allies in Congress that, contrary to the president’s repeated claims over recent weeks, NATO was in fact there to help in America’s hour of need. Charles...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday accused Israel of accepting Russian shipments filled with stolen Ukrainian grain. Mr. Zelenskyy has for years accused Russia of harvesting grain from agricultural centers it occupies in eastern Ukraine, aiming to make a steady profit during the war. Russia has denied Ukraine’s allegations. “Another vessel carrying such grain has arrived at a port in Israel and is preparing to unload,” Mr. Zelensky posted on X. “The Israeli authorities cannot be unaware of which ships are arriving at the country’s ports and what cargo they are carrying.” Mr. Zelenskyy was referring to the vessel Panormitis,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin could travel to the G20 summit in Miami in December, the Kremlin said on Friday after U.S. President ​Donald Trump suggested it would be very helpful if he did attend and that it had been a mistake to expel Russia from the G8. The United States has invited Russia to the annual meeting of Group of 20 countries that Washington is holding this year in Miami, and Moscow has accepted the invitation, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said on Friday. Putin has not attended a G20 summit since 2019 due to the COVID pandemic...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday declared a 32-hour ceasefire in Ukraine over the Orthodox Easter weekend, following an earlier call from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a pause in some of the hostilities to observe the holiday. Putin's decree, released by the Kremlin, orders Russian forces to observe a ceasefire starting at 4 p.m. Saturday and lasting until the end of Sunday. Zelenskyy proposed earlier in the week that each side stop targeting each other's energy infrastructure over the holiday, saying he made the offer through the United States, which has been mediating talks between delegations from Moscow and...

Hezbollah and Iran launched a coordinated strike strategy Tuesday, a national security expert claimed, as reports emerged that deadly cluster munitions were hitting Israel in synchronized attacks. The developments unfolded on day 11 of Operations Epic Fury and Roaring Lion, the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign targeting Iran, marking a potential escalation in the widening regional conflict. "Hezbollah has fully joined the war, and it looks like they are now very well coordinated with Iran," Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital while speaking from his bomb shelter near...

Can Iran Wait it Out? In a section titled, Can Iran Win?, Jim begins by acknowledging that the U.S. and Israeli forces have done far more damage thus far: Notwithstanding Iran’s limited success in counterattacks, it’s clear that the U.S. and Israel have inflicted far more damage on Iran than Iran has inflicted on the region. That asymmetric damage ratio will continue to grow. The U.S. and Israeli attacks will expand even as Iran’s capacity to strike back is being heavily degraded. However, there are deeper considerations here. For example, while taking out the 86-year old Ayatollah Khamenei was satisfying...

Russia has a question for the European countries that have shunned its energy exports: Do you miss us now? The Kremlin is enjoying a sudden resurgence of its importance as a global supplier of oil and gas, as the conflict in Iran disrupts energy production and shipment across the Middle East and sends global energy prices soaring. “Now other markets are opening up, and perhaps it’s more advantageous for us to stop supplying the European market right now,” Mr. Putin said on Wednesday to a state television reporter, Pavel Zarubin, who chronicles the Russian leader. “We are seeing an increase...

Ukraine is outmatched by Russian forces and requires significantly more infantry and weapons if it hopes to win the war, according to military intelligence and independent battlefield monitors. Although Moscow is paying an extraordinary price for comparatively minimal gains, western officials believe the country can sustain at least another year of war at the current rate of attrition. On Tuesday it will be four years since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After months of incremental advances, it appears to be on the verge of capturing a series of strategic locations in Ukraine’s so-called “fortress belt” and is expanding...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks at the White House on Friday, with the U.S. leader signaling he's not ready to agree to sell Kyiv a long-range missile system that the Ukrainians say they desperately need.Zelenskyy gets his one-on-one with Trump a day after the U.S. president and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a lengthy phone call to discuss the conflict.In recent days, Trump had shown an openness to selling Ukraine long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, even as Putin warned that such a move would further strain the U.S.-Russian relationship.But following...

Older Ukrainian lady speaking her mind about the war. Later she was arrested by the Ukrainian authorities for giving her opinion. Still we are told Ukraine is fighting for democracy....

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz does not have the ability to manage Europe’s top economy. “The welfare state that we have today can no longer be financed with what we produce in the economy,” Merz said in a recent meeting. At the same time, Merz agreed to begin sending Ukraine 9 billion euros annually in addition to all other aid. Merz tried to claim there would “not be any increase in income tax on medium-sized companies in Germany with this federal government under my leadership.” SPD Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil disagrees, and said that middle and high-income citizens could race an...

The West has grudgingly recognised its inability to persuade India not to buy Russian oil. However, anti-Russian lobbies continue to apply pressure on New Delhi, seeing that their goal of imposing a strategic defeat on Russia has proved illusory. Both the US and the EU seek to offload onto our backs some of their continuing failures in dealing with Russia. They have imposed a series of draconian sanctions on Russia for intervening militarily in Ukraine, but these have not caused the economic collapse of the country as they thought it would. Not just that, Trump himself, encouraged by his bludgeoning...

Donald Trump this week boosted Ukraine’s air defences with new Patriot batteries, threatened Vladimir Putin with sanctions if he does not agree to a ceasefire, and even reportedly gave tacit approval to more Ukrainian strikes on Moscow. Trump’s newfound support for Ukraine is a welcome lifeline. The question is whether his help will be enough to stop Russia’s relentless attacks before Ukraine is engulfed in a critical military, political and social crisis that threatens to destroy it from within. Putin chose war over peace this spring because his spies and generals told him that Ukraine is on the brink of...

What needs to happen is simple, but, at least for now, looks pretty suspect if you ask me. Russia would need to get so exhausted from the war that its lines collapse. After losing 1 million casualties, thousands of tanks and artillery pieces, and billions of dollars in bombers and drones, Moscow would one day see its war effort collapse in a mix of exhaustion, anger about the overall direction of the conflict, and a society that had had enough. This would allow Ukraine to reclaim the initiative and retake large swaths of territory. But from here, things get even...

President Trump in a new post on Truth Social on Sunday night accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having gone “absolutely” crazy and said if he did not stop what he was doing, it would lead to the downfall of his country. The social media comments came after Trump had issued some of his toughest comments about Putin earlier in remarks to reporters in New Jersey. “I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!,” Trump wrote. “He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire in the war with Ukraine next month to mark the 80th anniversary of World War II Victory Day. The Kremlin said the 72-hour ceasefire would run from the beginning of May 8 and last through the end of May 10. "All military actions are suspended for this period," the Kremlin said in a statement. "Russia believes that the Ukrainian side should follow this example." "In the event of violations by the Ukrainian side, Russia's armed forces will give an adequate and effective response," the statement said.

President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday he sympathized with the Russian position that Ukraine should not be part of NATO, and he lamented that he will not meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before his inauguration. Speaking at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club, Trump also blamed outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden for allegedly changing the U.S. position on NATO membership for Ukraine. "A big part of the problem is, Russia - for many, many years, long before Putin - said, 'You could never have NATO involved with Ukraine.' Now, they've said that. That's been, like, written in stone," Trump...

Brits are clamouring to sign up after an offer from Vladimir Putin to leave the "woke West" and move to Russia to embrace its "traditional values," the Kremlin has claimed. According to reports from Moscow, 17 people from Scotland have been in touch with the Russian Embassy to enquire about Putin's "fast-track residence permits". It was after the Russian dictator amended immigration laws to tempt more Westerners to come to his country. Putin has effectively said westerners would be seeking asylum from wokeism in Russia as he was offering "humanitarian aid" to people "who share traditional Russian spiritual and moral...

The Iskander is a Russian mobile short-range ballistic missile system that is used by the Russian military. The Iskander is organized into brigades, which are then divided into three battalions, each with two batteries of two launchers. Here are some things to know about the Iskander: Range: The Iskander has a range of 500 kilometers (310 miles). Guidance: The Iskander uses both inertial and optical guidance systems. Warheads: The Iskander-M ballistic missiles can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads. Cost: An Iskander missile can cost up to $4 million.