Free Republic

Donald Trump is losing patience with Vladimir Putin’s stalling tactics over the Ukraine ceasefire, the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, said after spending nine hours with the US president – including winning a golf competition with him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday. Stubb, who also spent two days with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, last week in Helsinki suggested in a Guardian interview a plan for a deadline of 20 April, by which time Putin should be required to comply with a full ceasefire. Stubb pointed out that a third golf partner on Saturday, the Republican senator Lindsey...

A pro-war Russian TV star has been killed on the front line just hours after sharing a social media post mocking Ukraine. Anna Prokofyeva, 35, died in the Demidovka border area of Belgorod, Russia, where Volodomyr Zelensky's forces have been making incursions. Her death was reported by other Kremlin-backed war correspondents and later by the state-run TV station Channel One, where she worked. Just a day before, she said she was "somewhere on the border with country 404", a reference to a common web page error - suggesting she believed Ukraine was a country that does not exist. Multiple other...

VLADIMIR Putin's soldiers have reportedly been left with never-before-seen lung poisoning after crawling through a 10-mile gas pipeline to attack Ukraine. Russian troops were sent on the bizarre mission earlier this month through a disused pipe near Sudzha, in Russia’s Kursk region – with the goal of sneaking behind enemy lines. But not only were many of the soldiers slaughtered by Ukrainian forces, survivors are now said to be suffering from chemical pneumonitis - an acute lung inflammation caused by inhaling toxic substances. Doctors have revealed the condition appears to have worsened over time - with scans showing lungs "resembling...

Throughout Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, repeated and escalating warnings of the potential for a wider war have only raised fears in the Baltic states that they could be next in the crosshairs of the Kremlin. Talk about a potential Russian invasion is "very common at parties, gatherings, lunch breaks, water cooler talk," Gabija Stasiukyne, a 32-year-old living in Vilnius, told the Kyiv Independent. "It’s everywhere. The conversation inevitably turns in the direction of — what are you going to do?" Lithuania's government is also taking the threat seriously — the country reinstated conscription in 2015, and Vilnius in January...

Gen. Jack Keane: We have to apply leverage against Putin . . [Fox News senior strategist analyst Gen. Jack Keane joins ‘America Reports’ to discuss Russia’s attack on Ukraine just hours after more ceasefire talks.]

“We want to get it over with,” Trump said of the war, in an interview with “The Ingraham Angle” host Laura Ingraham. “Right now, you have a lot of guns pointing at each other and a cease-fire without going a little bit further would have been tough,” Trump told Ingraham. “Russia has the advantage, as you know they have encircled about 2,500 [Ukrainian] soldiers,” the president claimed. “They’re nicely encircled and that’s not good.” “Look, we’re doing this – there are no Americans involved. There could be if you end up in World War III over this, which is so...

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday ruled out bringing back mandatory military service but said he wanted to mobilize society in the face of Russian aggression and would make an announcement in the coming weeks. Speaking to regional newspapers in comments recorded Friday and published Saturday, Macron said the return of compulsory military service was “not a realistic option.” He said France no longer had the “logistics” to reintroduce conscription, which ended in 2001. “We are going to look at ways to mobilize civilians,” Macron told the regional press, adding that he wanted to consolidate the “mobilization of society...

"When Nate heard his cousin, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, attack Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House’s Oval Office, he flew into a rage. In his camper van, lost on the roads of the American West that he has been crisscrossing since he came back from Ukraine in January 2025, Nate was disappointed. He felt let down by his younger cousin — JD is a few years younger than Nate, who is 47 — whose integrity he had always defended. “JD is a good guy, intelligent,” Nate says. “When he criticized aid to Ukraine, I told myself that...

Sweden donated 10 of its best Strv 122 tanks to Ukraine. In two years of hard fighting, Russian forces have scored no fewer than 14 hits on the 63-ton, four-person tanks—possibly meaning all 10 of the tanks have been damaged, some more than once. Incredibly, most of the tanks—up-armored Swedish variants of the German-made Leopard 2A5—are still operational, according to one detailed accounting. The tanks’ durability is testimony to German and Swedish engineering and the courage and ingenuity of Ukrainian engineers who must tow damaged tanks off the battlefield for repairs. The add-on armor works. One up-armored Leopard 1A5 recently...

Let’s not be squirrels who find the same nut over and over and are surprised each time. Donald Trump’s latest outburst represents, by my count, the third round of Mr. Trump popping off at Ukraine’s President Zelensky, perhaps for no reason deeper than Mr. Zelensky’s spurning of a Trump proffer on minerals. Mr. Trump’s all-purpose strategy when frustrated is tit-for-tat. It fills his need to dominate the news constantly while he fumbles around for a laurel to award himself in place of the one that got away. Where press disingenuousness bleeds into dishonesty is treating his every ad lib as...

The Russia-Ukraine War: It Should Never Have Started Three years ago, I went on Fox News to give my assessment of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In that segment, I pointed out to host Trace Galligher that the reason for the invasion was the prospect of NATO expansion into Ukraine. Even as the invasion was mere hours old, I argued that if the Ukrainian government “would finally just make a deal that they’re not going to go into NATO, that will probably be enough for” Putin to end the war. --SNIP-- NATO: The Spark for the Russia vs. Ukraine War?...

Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine will never give in to Vladimir Putin's 'ultimatums' and has cancelled a visit to Saudi Arabia as he hit out at the United States and Russia for holding talks there 'behind our backs'. 'I wonder why they believe Ukraine would accept all these ultimatums now if we refused them at the most difficult moment,' the Ukrainian President said, referring to Kyiv's refusal to bow to Moscow's demands during crisis talks at the start of the war. Zelensky pointed out that there were 'no agreements with the Russians during the occupation of Kyiv region,' nor during negotiations...

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...

A Russian intelligence-gathering vessel caught fire and temporarily lost control off the Syrian coast on Janaury 23, according to Associated Press (AP). The Kildin, a Russian spy ship equipped with surveillance technology, was seen emitting black smoke and flames as it drifted, prompting an urgent maritime radio warning to nearby vessels. The Associated Press obtained audio of the broadcast, as well as video and photographs of the incident. “Warship on your course,” the Russian Captain said. “I am drifting. I’m not under command.” The videos, taken by three NATO military officials, were collected by a nearby NATO vessel. These officials...

NATO fighter planes were scrambled today amid a brutal Russian missile and military drone onslaught on civilian, energy and military sites in Ukraine. Harrowing footage showed residents in Poltava screaming after a strike destroyed ordinary apartment blocks triggering fires amid the debris of smashed buildings. The wave of attacks by Vladimir Putin - which led to power cuts in multiple regions - came soon after Donald Trump announced in the Oval Office that his administration was actively talking to Moscow. “We are having very serious discussions about that war, trying to get it ended,” said the US president. On whether...

Conservative commentator Tucker Carlson has stirred controversy once again by alleging that the Biden administration attempted to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. In a provocative statement made during his Monday podcast, The Tucker Carlson Show, the former Fox News host suggested that the U.S. government had tried to eliminate Putin without offering any supporting evidence. "The Biden administration did, they tried to kill Putin," Carlson boldly claimed. When his guest, journalist Matt Taibbi, expressed surprise, Carlson insisted, "Yes, yes, they did, which is insane." His remarks, made in a casual tone, sparked immediate backlash, given the lack of any concrete...

A top ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin has advised him to remove Vladimir Lenin's body from a mausoleum in Moscow in order to seal his legacy as Moscow's leader. Alexander Dugin, a far-right political philosopher, has advised the president to remove Lenin's body from the burial site in order to "make room there for the real Emperor" and make other changes to the mausoleum, according to the Telegram post by the account Kremlin Snuffbox. -snip- The Russian philosopher also reportedly advised Putin to make improvements to the mausoleum by rebuilding the structure, decorating it with military trophies accumulated during...

DRAMATIC footage shows the moment people fled as a huge fireball explosion ripped through a major Russian oil refinery. Ukrainian forces blasted the Rostneft Oil Refinery in Ryazan with long-range kamikaze drones last night in the latest blow for Vladimir Putin. Towering flames and huge plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the site in footage shared on social media. People ran from the scene as the inferno raged. At least 20 drones targeted the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, overnight - striking the depot and a power station. Regional governor Pavel Malkov said emergency services were tackling the...

President Trump re-upped his claim that Russia stole the plan for hypersonic missiles during the Obama administration. “Russia stole the design, they got it from us,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity. Part two of the interview, his first since taking the reins at the White House, was aired Thursday night. “Some bad person gave them the design,” he said, adding that the United States will have super hypersonic missiles “which is even a step better.”

Several explosions were reported in Russia overnight as a result of a massive drone attack, with extraordinary images showing the night sky being lit up by fierce flames. Astonishing footage circulating online shows huge blazes enveloping the Ryazan Oil Refining Company as well as the nearby Novo-Ryazan Thermal Power Plant. Regional Governor Pavel Malkov confirmed a drone attack had targeted the region in the early hours of Friday, and added that a private home in Ryazan caught fire due to an air strike. He said the fire has already been extinguished, and there are no casualties. The governor added drones...