Free Republic

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday the grain leaving Ukrainian ports after a blockade that fuelled a global food crisis was mostly reaching Europe instead of developing nations and questioned the merits of the deal. The United Nations and Turkey brokered an agreement with Moscow and Kyiv -- the first between the two since the February launch of Russia's military campaign -- restoring frozen Ukrainian grain deliveries across the Black Sea. But Moscow has voiced increasing frustration with how the agreement was being applied. An amendment to the deal also allowed Russia to get open access to fertiliser shipments and...

The strategy behind Ukraine’s rapid military gains in recent days began to take shape months ago during a series of intense conversations between Ukrainian and U.S. officials about the way forward in the war against Russia, according to American officials. The counteroffensive — revised this summer from its original form after urgent discussions between senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials — has succeeded beyond most predictions. Ukrainian forces have devastated Russian command and control, and appear poised to capitalize on their advances in the northeast of the country and in another campaign in the south.