Free Republic

22 days separate us from January 20, 2025, the day when Donald J. Trump will be inaugurated—and a milestone starting point after which much is expected to change in global geopolitics, especially in the war in Ukraine. As for now, Russian Federation forces continue to advance relentlessly, and, while the Joe Biden administration from hell gave Ukraine as much as 30% of the complete stockpile of ATCMS long-range missiles, the ‘wonder weapon’ failed to move the needle in the conflict—and now Kiev have very few missiles left. Those much-touted long-range missiles provided by the US and the UK were used...

Moscow has warned that retaliatory actions are being prepared after accusing Ukraine of launching another round of ATACMS strikes into Russian territory. Russian military on Tuesday pledged a response to the fresh air attacks using the US-supplied missiles, which Russia's defence ministry said were carried out on November 23 and 25. 'Retaliatory actions are being prepared,' it said in a post on Telegram, without providing any further details.

Never a dull day: America’s political culture is ever changing. Currently, we are witnessing a beautifully orchestrated “display” of how one leaves the office of president as a sore loser. After the 2020 election, Donald Trump was defeated and had to vacate the White House to make room for Joe Biden. In the end, whatever you think about the president-elect, January 6 was a political protest that devolved into a riot. Nothing more, nothing less. It certainly was not an insurrection. For many it was an expression of contempt for Washington establishment elites and their sense of entitlement to everything...

When it comes to the world of geopolitics, there is always far more going on than meets the eye. The long-range missiles that Ukraine is now firing deep into Russian territory are not going to change the course of the war. But the Russian response to those long-range missiles might. Hopefully the Russians will show restraint, because they may not even realize that they are being led into a trap. Just two days after Joe Biden gave the green light, Ukraine fired six ATACMS missiles deep into Russian territory on Tuesday… Ukraine hit a Russian weapons arsenal with US-made ATACMS...

Today Vladimir Putin gave an unscheduled live address to the nation. He claimed that on Nov. 19, six ATACMS missiles — and on Nov. 21, several Storm Shadow missiles — had been used by Ukraine for strikes against targets in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions. According to Putin, Russia retaliated on Nov. 21 with a combined strike against a Ukrainian defense industry facility. In addition, “a field test was conducted in combat conditions” for one of Russia's newest medium-range weapon systems: a nuclear-free hypersonic ballistic missile. “Our engineers named it 'Oreshnik' [‘Hazel’],” Putin declared with a smile. (video at link)

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday formally lowered the threshold for Russia’s use of its nuclear weapons, a move that follows U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russian territory with American-supplied longer-range missiles. The new doctrine allows for a potential nuclear response by Moscow even to a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Ukraine fired six U.S.-made ATACMS missiles early Tuesday at a military facility in Russia's Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, adding that air defenses shot down five of them and damaged one...

Ukraine has carried out its first strike on Russian territory with US-supplied long-range missiles just days after the Biden administration gave Kyiv the green light despite fears it could escalate the conflict beyond control. A fiery explosion at an ammunition depot in Karachev around 75 miles from the Ukrainian border in Russia's Bryansk region lit up the night sky early this morning on what is the 1,000th day of war in Ukraine. Eyewitnesses along with Russian and Ukrainian military bloggers first reported the attack, with anonymous Ukrainian military officials later telling RBC Ukraine the strike was conducted with the US-manufactured...

Moscow signaled to the West that it’s ready for a nuclear confrontation. Ukrainian news outlets reported early Tuesday that the missiles had been used to attack a Russian military facility in the Bryansk border region.

Key points Moscow says Ukraine has hit Russia with US long-range missiles . Putin signs doctrine lowering threshold for nuclear weapons use after US missile decision . Kremlin warns Ukraine's use of Western-supplied missiles against Russia could trigger nuclear response . Ukrainian region hit by deadly Russian attack for second day

Ukraine has carried out its first attack into Russia with the American ATACMS system since the new go-ahead came from Washington, Ukrainian media reports. The target was a military facility near Karatev in the Bryansk region, a source told the media company RBC. It was successfully destroyed, the source said. The place is about 130 km from the border.

President Vladimir Putin has updated Russia’s nuclear doctrine, two days after his US counterpart Joe Biden granted Ukraine permission to strike targets deep inside Russia with US-made weapons. Under the updated doctrine issued Tuesday, Moscow will consider aggression from any non-nuclear state – but with the participation of a nuclear country – a joint attack on Moscow. In a phone call with reporters Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noted the changes mean that “the Russian Federation reserves the right to use nuclear weapons in the event of aggression using conventional weapons against it and/or the Republic of Belarus.” “An important...

July 1 (Reuters) - Russian forces have captured an intact guidance system from a long-range U.S.-made ATACMS missile and are studying the American military technology, Russia's RIA state news agency said on Monday. Video footage released by RIA showed an unidentified weapons expert, with his face concealed by a balaclava, examining what he said was a guidance system from an Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) weapon apparently shot down by Russian forces. Reuters could not verify the equipment shown in the video.

Aerial drone footage shared by military analysts on Wednesday appears to show dozens of Russian soldiers being targeted with U.S.-supplied long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, at a training ground in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region. The clip was shared on X, formerly Twitter, by a volunteer with GeoConfirmed, an OSINT account that geolocates visual content from the Russia-Ukraine war. "Ukrainian ATACMS strike, with 4 ATACMS, including one dud, hitting a Russian training area in Mozhnyakivka, Luhansk Oblast. Based on the footage the losses will be significant. 80 km behind the front line," GeoConfirmed said, sharing stills showing the impact...

The transfer of Army Tactical Missile Systems with a nearly 200-mile range ends a yearslong drama between Washington and Kyiv. The Biden administration last month secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine for the first time in the two-year war — and Kyiv has already used the weapon twice to strike deep behind Russian lines. In March, the U.S. quietly approved the transfer of a number of Army Tactical Missile Systems with a range of nearly 200 miles, said a senior Biden administration official and two U.S. officials, allowing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s forces to put at risk more Russian targets inside...

For all its supposed modernization, Moscow's military doctrine has retained the historical Russian focus on artillery. Russian gunners proved more numerous and well-supplied than their Ukrainian enemies in the early stages of the conflict. But as Kyiv's arsenal has been bolstered by NATO systems, Russia's "god of war" has been somewhat muted... Kyiv's claimed tally of Russian equipment losses demonstrates the enthusiasm with which Ukrainian artillery and drone teams have hunted Russian big guns, as well as multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) that perform a similar function at shorter ranges. From September to November 2023, Ukraine claimed to have destroyed...

Svyatoslav Golikov, an instructor of Russia's Storm-Z penal units, took to his Telegram channel on Tuesday to outline the impact the weapons are having on troops in combat. He said ATACMS, which are capable of reaching targets 100 miles or more away, are creating large-scale casualties, and this is disrupting the execution of Russian operations... The U.S. agreed in September to supply Ukraine with ATACMS. Given their long-range, Kyiv's forces are able to strike targets further away than missiles from the U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and M270 multiple-launch rocket systems... "It is cluster shells that are now...

Growing numbers of Russian troops are rejecting orders from their superiors as Moscow's forces suffer huge losses in offensives in Ukraine, according to independent Russian news sources. Russian-language Telegram channel Astra said that every day it gets messages from the families of soldiers who have been detained in occupied regions of Ukraine, as anecdotes abound of a lack of artillery, food, water and poor command. Reports of growing dissent and localized insubordination, sporadic as they have been so far, are likely to irk the Kremlin, which just months ago was targeted in a full-blown mutiny. It was led by the...

The Pentagon plans to send Israel tens of thousands of 155mm artillery shells that had been designated for Ukraine from U.S. emergency stocks several months ago, three Israeli officials with knowledge of the situation tell Axios.Why it matters: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Israeli ministry of defense told their U.S. counterparts they urgently need artillery shells to prepare for a ground invasion in Gaza — and a potential escalation of the war by Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border, Israeli officials say. U.S. officials have suggested that diverting the shells from Ukraine to Israel would have no immediate impact...

The ATACMS strikes on Russian airfields in Ukraine's Luhansk region and the port city of Berdyansk in the Zaporizhzhia region on Tuesday destroyed nine helicopters, dealing one of the most significant blows against Russian aviation since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022... The images show multiple scorch marks where Russian helicopters reportedly used to be. The Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said in an analysis of the conflict on Tuesday that the Ukrainian ATACMS strikes on Moscow's airfields in Luhansk and Berdyansk will likely prompt the Russian command to disperse aviation assets and withdraw...

Ukraine has used U.S.-made cluster-bomb-tipped rockets from the ATACMS system for the first time, it is claimed, with the weapon said to have taken out nine Russian helicopters while they were still on the ground. Ukraine claims to have taken out nine helicopters and associated support equipment on the ground in a series of coordinated strikes against Russian-occupied airfields overnight. Per a statement from the Ukrainian government the strikes in the early hours of Tuesday morning were against airfields in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine including Berdiansk and Luhansk and as well as the nine military helicopters Ukraine says ammunition stores...