Free Republic

The escalatory move is also an admission of Ukraine's failure, a senior Russian diplomat has said The US decision to include cluster munitions in its latest batch of military aid to Kiev is an admission of failure and a desperate attempt to stave off defeat, Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Friday. "Cluster munitions are a gesture of desperation. Such a measure speaks of the awareness of the United States and its satellites of their impotence," Antonov told reporters. "However, they do not want to admit their own setbacks and the failure of the Ukrainian military's attempts to...

Q Thanks, Jen. There are reports of illegal cluster bombs and vacuum bombs being used by the Russians. If that’s true, what is the next step of this administration? And is there a red line for how much violence will be tolerated against civilians in this manner that’s illegal and potentially a war crime? MS. PSAKI: It is — it would be. I don’t have any confirmation of that. We have seen the reports. If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime. Obviously, there are a range of international fora that would assess that. So, certainly, we...

The U.S. has reportedly decided not to invite two of its allies to the ‘Summit for Democracy,' which is touted as President Biden’s hallmark foreign policy initiative. The U.S. government is inviting around 120 countries to join its 'Summit for Democracy' next week. But two NATO allies, Turkey and Hungary, aren’t going to get a call. The snub is likely to inflame tensions between the U.S. and its two NATO allies even further. ...

Government forces in Ukraine are trying to seize the initiative from Russian troops before the arrival of winter. A counter-offensive is already under way in the south and the Ukrainians are now preparing to expand that in the east to take back land lost in Donbas and around Kharkiv in the north. Quentin Sommerville and camera-journalist Darren Conway have been given exclusive access to a unit of Ukrainian troops. The air is thick with the smell of burning sunflowers, and the pat-pat-pat of Russian cluster bombs can be heard landing across the fields, setting fire to a crop which stands,...