Free Republic

fter barely six months in office, President Donald Trump has gone from peacemaker to warmonger. He attacked Iran and is threatening more strikes, bombarded Yemen’s Ansar Allah militants on behalf of Israel and Europe, is encouraging the former to conquer Gaza, and is increasing U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine cataclysm.War with Russia is the most immediate danger. Its invasion of its neighbor was a tragedy, but requires U.S. avoidance, not involvement. Throughout most of America’s history, Ukraine has been ruled from Moscow. The Ukrainian people have long suffered under that relationship, but Washington never considered going to war on Kiev’s...

Russia launched its biggest attack of the war overnight against natural gas facilities run by Ukraine’s state-owned Naftogaz Group, officials said Friday. Russia fired a total of 381 drones and 35 missiles at Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s air force. in what officials was an attempt to wreck the Ukrainian power grid ahead of winter and wear down public appetite for the 3-year-old conflict. “This is deliberate terror against civilian facilities that provide gas extraction and processing for the normal life of people,” Serhii Koretskyi, chief executive of Ukraine’s state-owned gas company Naftogaz, said in a statement. “It has no military...

Russian President Vladimir Putin – […] They’ve made a lot of noise many times, threatening us with a complete blockade. They’ve even said openly, without hesitation, that they want to make the Russian people suffer. That’s the word they chose. They’ve drawn up plans, each more fantastical than the last one. I think the time has come to calm down, to take a look around, to get their bearings, and to start building relations in a completely different way.We also understand that the polycentric world is highly dynamic. It appears fragile and unstable because it is impossible to permanently fix...

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday that its forces had carried out massive overnight strikes on Ukrainian military-industrial facilities and on gas and energy infrastructure. It said it had conducted the strikes using high-precision long-range weapons launched from the air, land and sea as well as drones. Ukraine's energy ministry spoke earlier on Friday about the attack and top private energy provider DTEK said it had suspended operations at several gas facilities in the Poltava region.

Detailed report on Zelensky’s bombing of the Russian held Zaparhoznia nuke facilty and Vlads response on St Z’s Chernobyl site.

President Donald Trump is flexing new leverage in the war in Ukraine — allowing the nation to use U.S. weapons to strike deep into Russia, weighing whether to provide Kyiv with Tomahawk cruise missiles and vowing Ukraine can take back all its land — while pressing China and India to slash purchases Russian oil. Ukraine supporters are cheering the shift, noting that after months of frustration over the grinding conflict, Trump appears to be changing tactics. From a combative February meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to his declaration last week that Ukraine could reclaim all of its original territory, the...

BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungary's Viktor Orban said on Monday that Ukraine was not a sovereign country, as he hit back at accusations that Hungarian reconnaissance drones violated its airspace - the latest salvo in an increasingly bitter row between Kyiv and Budapest."Ukraine is not at war with Hungary; it is at war with Russia. It should be concerned with the drones on its eastern border," the Hungarian prime minister said during an interview on a right-wing podcast popular with his supporters."I believe my ministers, but let's say it would have actually flown a few metres there, so what? Ukraine is not...

Putin Prepares A New Proposal For Ukraine🕊️The Frontline Situation Is Catastrophic💥MS For 2025.09.27

“Dare to Ukraine” is The Kyiv Independent’s wartime travel series that shows the country beyond the war headlines. In Episode 4 of “Dare to Ukraine: Village,” Masha’s quiet rural routine is interrupted by a new mission: uncover the local history and debunk Russian propaganda myths about Ukraine. What starts as a simple day in the countryside turns into a journey through Ukraine’s past and present — proving that even the smallest villages and communities carry stories of independence that shatter Russian lies."

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recommended that its citizens immediately leave Belarus and refrain from traveling to the country, the Polish embassy in Minsk reported. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommends refraining from any travel to the Republic of Belarus and calls on Polish citizens currently in the Republic of Belarus to immediately leave its territory, using available commercial and private means“, the embassy's press service said.

US President Donald Trump voiced his displeasure with Putin’s actions and pointed out the decline of Russia’s economy, according to his remarks to journalists at the White House, APA reports quoting RBC Ukraine. Trump criticized what Russia is doing and the actions of its president, Vladimir Putin. "They have put it all out on the line. Their economy is going to hell. They're bombing the hell out of everything," he said. The US president also noted that Russian forces are capturing very little territory, if they are capturing any at all. "In fact, they're losing some territory. So, I think...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on Wednesday, one day after President Donald Trump called Moscow a "paper tiger" and said Ukraine could win back its seized land. Rubio and Lavrov sat with their delegations on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz was also present. The meeting lasted roughly 50 minutes. Lavrov didn't respond to questions as he left, including whether he was concerned about the shift in tone from Trump or whether the U.S. president had turned his back on...

Russia and China asked the United Nations Security Council to vote on Friday on a draft resolution to delay by six months the reimposition of sanctions on Iran, diplomats said. All U.N. sanctions on Iran are due to be reimposed at 8 p.m. EDT on Friday (0000 GMT on Saturday) after Britain, France and Germany triggered a 30-day process accusing Tehran of violating a 2015 deal with world powers aimed at preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon. A resolution in the 15-member U.N. Security Council needs at least nine votes in favor and no vetoes by either Britain, France...

United States President Donald Trump expressed on Thursday his disappointment with Russian President Vladimir Putin, regarding the lack of progress toward resolving the war in Ukraine. "With all of the heavy bombardment over the last two weeks, they have gained almost no land. I'm not going to ever call anybody a paper tiger but Russia has spent millions and millions of dollars in bombs, missiles, ammunition and lives," Trump told journalists amid a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Oval Office.

After three and a half years, President Vladimir Putin is having to lean more and more on ordinary Russians to pay for his war in Ukraine. The Russian Finance Ministry on Wednesday said it intends to raise value added tax by two percentage points to 22 percent, part of a three-year plan that aims to plug a rapidly expanding hole in public finances. VAT accounted for more than 15 percent of total government revenue last year. After raising personal income taxes sharply at the start of the year, Putin had pledged there would be no more big changes to the...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview published on Thursday that he would be ready to step down after the war with Russia is over. “If we finish the war with the Russians, yes, I am ready not to go [for elections] because it’s not my goal, elections,” Zelensky told the Axios website in a video interview. “I wanted very much, in a very difficult period of time, to be with my country, help my country. My goal is to finish the war.” Zelensky said he would ask Ukraine’s parliament to organise elections if a ceasefire was reached. A...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Ukraine, APA reports. The announcement was made by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on his Facebook page. During their meeting, Rubio confirmed his agreement to travel to Ukraine. It should be noted that since assuming office, Secretary Rubio has not yet visited Ukraine.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine have destroyed two Russian An-26 transport aircraft in Crimea and an SU-34 fighter jet in the Zaporizhzhia direction, APA reports, citing UNIAN. In addition, a Russian radar station and a coastal radar were also hit.

Sergei Aksyonov, the head of Russia-controlled Crimea, said on Thursday that disruptions in fuel supplies were related to the closure of some oil refineries as a gasoline crisis widened across Russia. Several Russian regions were seeing shortages of certain fuel grades as Ukrainian drone attacks have reduced refinery runs, while high borrowing costs mean private filling stations can't afford to stockpile fuel, traders and retailers said. "Due to the fact that some of the plants are physically not working, we have experienced problems and interruptions with fuel," Aksyonov said on a video posted on his Telegram channel, without saying the...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised his "productive meeting" with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, after which Trump appeared to jettison his long-held skepticism of Kyiv's battlefield ambitions. Shortly after the meeting, Trump wrote on social media, "After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form." (snip) But on Tuesday, the...