Free Republic

President Donald Trump told Newsmax on Tuesday that it's possible Russia and President Vladimir Putin are "dragging their feet" on a peace deal with Ukraine. Trump made the assertion in an interview with "Greg Kelly Reports" from the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Tuesday. "I don't know. I mean, I'll let you know at a certain point. But I think that Russia wants to see an end to it, but it could be they're dragging their feet," Trump told Newsmax host Greg Kelly. "I've done it over the years, you know; I don't want to sign a contract,...

Russia has attacked at least eight Ukrainian energy facilities since March 18 when Moscow says it halted such attacks, a senior Ukrainian presidential official said on Wednesday. Ihor Zhovkva, speaking on national television, also said that, contrary to Russian statements, no preconditions were discussed with U.S. officials as they agreed a Black Sea truce with Russia during talks in Saudi Arabia this week. The Kremlin said earlier that a number of conditions must be met before the Black Sea maritime security deal negotiated with the United States can be activated.

Russia launched an overnight drone strike against the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Mykolaiv, just hours after the US announced that Moscow and Kyiv had agreed to a maritime ceasefire, authorities said. The mayor of Mykolaiv said on Wednesday morning that the city was experiencing emergency power outages. Meanwhile, the region's governor confirmed that the Ukrainian military had destroyed seven Russian drones in the region overnight. -snip- Although Moscow and Kyiv agreed to a Black Sea ceasefire after three days of separate talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh, questions remain about its implementation. Speaking on Tuesday, Zelenskyy...

THIS is the dramatic moment Ukrainian forces obliterate four of Mad Vlad's military helicopters inside a hidden Russian airstrip. Extraordinary aerial footage showed four choppers worth £68million combined being decimated by US-made missiles in the Belgorod region. In the tense video footage, Russian choppers are spotted and located by the overhead camera. The enemy vehicles are highlighted, before laser-fast strikes rain down and demolish them. Large explosions can be seen as they are spectacularly obliterated one at a time. Kyiv's military said that they had destroyed two Mi-8 and two Ka-52s helicopters.

The U.S. is hoping a “broad ceasefire" between Russia and Ukraine can be struck in the coming weeks before Easter, Bloomberg wrote on Sunday. Separate negotiations between the U.S. and Russia and Ukraine have taken place over the last few weeks with hopes to pause the fighting for 30-days. Sources familiar with the planning told Bloomberg the White House is aiming “for a truce agreement by April 20.” The date is seen as significant because this year both Western and Orthodox churches mark Easter on the same day. -snip- Russia ‘undermines peace efforts’ In recent days, Russia increased strikes on...

Russia's under-pressure economy and Vladimir Putin have been dealt a devastating blow after state-controlled gas giant Gazprom recorded a huge net loss of $12.89B (£9.9bn) in 2024. The company's financial woes were compounded by plummeting share prices in its subsidiary Gazpro Neft and an increased income tax rate of 25%. This greatly raised tax liabilities for the company, leading to billions of pounds lost and follows a historic 2023 where Gazprom revealed a net loss for the first time in 25 years, recording a historic deficit of 629 billion rubles ($7.6 billion). The huge financial blow has had a knock...

Russian and North Korean state-run media say Russia's Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu arrived in Pyongyang on Friday. Russia's Tass news agency says Shoigu, a former defense minister, is due to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The two countries have been deepening their military cooperation as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine. During Shoigu's visit, the two sides are expected to discuss Pyongyang's provision of troops and artillery to Russia, and Moscow's offering military technical support in return. The two countries are also believed to be coordinating the timing of a summit between Kim and Russian President Vladimir...

Iran has the right to peaceful nuclear energy and is acting in line with international law, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. Peskov said Moscow accepted Iran's statements that it has no intention of obtaining nuclear weapons.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that a halt on energy strikes in the war with Russia could be established quickly, but warned Ukraine would respond in kind if Moscow violated the terms of the limited ceasefire. After speaking to U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday for the first time since their disastrous Oval Office talks, Zelenskiy said Kyiv would draw up a list of facilities that could be subject to a partial ceasefire brokered by Washington. That list could include not only energy, but also rail and port infrastructure, he said, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin...

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko reportedly said that the Kremlin wants an "ironclad" guarantee that Ukraine will be prohibited from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as the Trump administration works to broker a deal to end the fighting. "We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement," Grushko was quoted by the Russian newspaper Izvestia as saying, according to Reuters. "Part of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of NATO countries to accept it into the alliance."

The conversation between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin scheduled for Tuesday is indeed being prepared, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing in response to a TASS question, APA reports. "Yes, this is indeed the case," he emphasized. "Such a conversation is being prepared for Tuesday," the spokesman added.

The Trump administration is placing more restrictions on Russia's oil, gas and banking sectors by further restricting Russian access to U.S. payment systems, according to four people familiar with the plans. The Treasury Department on Wednesday let lapse a 60-day exemption put in place by the Biden administration in January that allowed specific energy transactions involving sanctioned Russian banks to continue. By letting the waiver lapse, the banks may no longer access U.S. payment systems to conduct major energy transactions. The Russian financial institutions that had been exempt from sanctions included Vnesheconombank, Bank Financial Corporation Otkritie, Sovcombank, Sberbank, VTB Bank,...

With America’s drone technology a disappointment on the battlefield, defense startups have joined forces with Ukrainian manufacturers to build better, war-proven aircraft for the U.S. military. U.S. startups have spent billions of venture-capital dollars in hopes of developing the small drones that the Pentagon says it needs for future conflicts, but many have produced only expensive aircraft that don’t fly very well. Ukrainian drone makers, meanwhile, have mastered mass-producing drones despite limited resources and are looking for new customers and capital. Now, the two sides are coming together, and the unlikely pairing is getting attention from the Defense Department. Southern...

Fox News is wall to wall with dead-eyed politicians telling you that Iran is a dangerous “sponsor of terror.” Softening up the base for a war. But what exactly does that phrase mean, and how does it apply to the United States? Here’s one measure: over the past twenty years, how many Americans have been killed by Iran on American soil? Try to find that number, and then compare it to the number of Americans killed by drug ODs. Or suicide. Or illegal aliens. Or carjackings, diabetes and the Covid vax. Still think Iran is the greatest threat? How about...

Vladimir Putin 'regrets' triggering a full-scale war costing hundreds of thousands of lives, his closest international ally has claimed. Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko said: 'We haven't talked about it, but I know him well. 'Putin didn't expect it would turn into such a war.' The close Putin crony told interviewer Mario Nawfal on X: 'When he saw a huge number of people dying, Putin instantly agreed to the negotiations to stop the conflict.' This was earlier in the war, in 2022, and, Lukashenko claimed, Putin was ready to negotiate 'on NATO, on demilitarisation, on denazification', as he described it, 'on...

Vladimir Putin is facing a fierce backlash from some of his most war-hungry supporters after publicly cosying up to Donald Trump. Russian warmongers are furious over Putin’s plan to seek US investment for rare earth metals and aluminium, with accusations he is giving away precious Russian assets. -snip- Staunch Russian war-backer Maksim Kalashnikov is outraged about Putin’s seeming lack of success in the war, as it plots the supply of rare metals to the West. ‘On the third anniversary of the war, they explained to us what victory would look like,” he said. ‘We get what we occupied – a...

Kyiv has agreed terms with Washington on a minerals deal that Ukrainian officials hope will improve relations with the Trump administration and pave the way for a long-term US security commitment. Ukrainian officials say Kyiv is now ready to sign the agreement on jointly developing its mineral resources, including oil and gas, after the US dropped demands for a right to $500bn in potential revenue from exploiting the resources. Although the text lacks explicit security guarantees, the officials argued that they had negotiated far more favourable terms and depicted the deal as a way of broadening the relationship with the...

-snip- Asked about unconfirmed reports on Telegram and X that U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff may have flown into Moscow, Peskov said he had no information about the matter and that no meetings with him were on the agenda. Later on Tuesday, Rosaviatsia, Russia's aviation regulator, issued a statement in response to what it said were media questions and reports after flight tracking services showed a private jet landing in Moscow from the United States. The regulator said it was a one-off technical flight from Washington to Moscow related to "humanitarian cooperation" of a medical nature. It did not...

On February 9, the players, coaches and owners of either the Philadelphia Eagles or Kansas City Chiefs will win a coveted Super Bowl ring. The rings, which are understood to cost between $30,000 (£24,000) and $50,000 (£40,000), are widely considered to be one of the most iconic and beautiful awards in sport today. Few people are more familiar with the gleaming pieces of jewellery than New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who watched his iconic side win six Super Bowls. Yet, the multi-billionaire only has five rings, as Russian president Vladimir Putin has the other one. Kraft, 83, visited Russia...

This is the dramatic moment a low-flying Vladimir Putin warplane is shot down by Ukrainian troops and explodes into a huge fireball. The £11million Su-25 attack warplane was captured smashing into the ground near the village of Zaitsevo, close to a major battle scene in Toretsk, Donetsk region. The pilot ejected and is “alive and safe”, according to reports. The plane was hit by a shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missile, confirmed the Ukrainians. Footage apparently showed a Russian rescue helicopter plucking the Su-25 pilot to safety after he had hidden in the forest. However, the rescue Mi-8 helicopter was attacked by Ukrainian...