Free Republic

Russia and NATO are now in "direct confrontation", the Kremlin said as the U.S.-led alliance marked its 75th anniversary on Thursday. NATO's successive waves of eastern enlargement are a fixation of President Vladimir Putin, who went to war in Ukraine two years ago with the stated aim of preventing the alliance from coming closer to Russia's borders. Instead, the war has galvanised NATO, which has expanded again with the entry of Finland and Sweden. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "In fact, relations have now slipped to the level of direct confrontation." NATO was "already involved in the conflict surrounding...

French President Emmanuel Macron's push to deploy troops to Ukraine could yet prove the first domino of an official NATO military presence in the war-torn country, even while Russia's grinding frontline assaults and nationwide bombing campaign continue. The French leader said in late February that "nothing was excluded" with regard to officially putting NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine, though his American and German allies were quick to explicitly, and repeatedly, exclude that possibility. Macron has subsequently maintained his position, even garnering backing from eastern NATO states. This week, the commander of the French ground forces said his troops...

Ukraine's long-awaited F-16s are an example of weapons systems that are "no longer relevant" once they end up in Kyiv's hands, a senior Ukrainian officer told Politico.Russia has already learned how to counter F-16s in a way that would minimize their battlefield potential, said the unnamed officer, who, per Politico, worked under former Ukraine armed forces head Valery Zaluzhny.In an article published on Wednesday, Politico's opinion editor Jamie Dettmer wrote that the outlet spoke to several top officers under the condition of anonymity.One of Dettmer's sources was this officer, who lamented about the F-16s and said they were arriving too...

Residents in a region hit by the deepest drone strikes within Russian territory since the start of the war in Ukraine have been warned that air defenses may not be able to protect them from future attacks. Since the start of its full-scale invasion, Russia has been hit with drone strikes reaching Moscow as well as ammunition depots and warehouses around the country linked to the war effort. Russian authorities blame Ukraine for the attacks, which Kyiv rarely claims responsibility for. In the latest incident, a drone attack on the Russian republic of Tatarstan on Tuesday reportedly hit industrial areas...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday signed a law that lowers the country’s conscription age from 27 to 25 as Kyiv struggles to replenish its troops in its war against Russia. Zelenskyy said last year that his government was exploring ways to mobilize more than 450,000 new troops to support soldiers facing exhaustion on the frontlines. But the proposal to lower the mobilization age is highly unpopular, and Zelenskyy was reportedly hesitant about signing the bill into law. Some had proposed mobilizing NATO troops in Ukraine to support Kyiv’s war efforts, but several bloc members dismissed the idea.

Dramatic footage shows the moment a suspected Ukrainian plane-type UAV explodes as it was targeted at a Russian plant assembling Iranian Shahed drones used in the war. There was a huge blast and fireball near Yelabuga, deep in Russia, at least 660 miles from the closest Ukrainian territory. A total of three strikes were reported in the area. Russian sources say it hit a dormitory for workers in the Alabuga economic zone in the Republic of Tatarstan, where it is believed the deadly Iranian drones are assembled. It is unclear so far if there was also damage to the drone-making...

Ukrainian drones attacked Russia's third largest oil refinery on Tuesday about 1,300 km (800 miles) from the front lines, hitting a core unit which processes about 155,000 barrels of crude refining per day. -snip- Pictures from the scene indicated the drone hit the primary refining unit, CDU-7, at the Taneco refinery. The unit accounts for around a half of the plant's total annual production capacity. "A drone attack was carried out on one of the enterprises in Nizhnekamsk," Ramil Mullin, the mayor of Nizhnekamsk, said. -snip- The attack was one of several in Tatarstan, a highly industrialised region south-east of...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Sunday that he expects to move a package including aid for Ukraine with “some important innovations” when the House returns from recess. In an interview on “Sunday Night in America With Trey Gowdy,” Johnson stressed the difficult position he’s in, with a historically narrow House majority, but said he was working throughout the current work period to come up with a package and plans to put it on the floor when the House gavels back into session.

Ukrainian forces in a priority section of the front line near Avdiivka appear to have defeated a large Russian mechanized assault involving tanks and fighting vehicles over the weekend. -snip- On March 30, Ukrainian troops outside occupied Avdiivka fought off a Russian battalion-sized mechanized assault, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said. ISW cited a Ukrainian serviceman who, on March 31, said that elements of Russia's 6th Tank Regiment sent 36 tanks and 12 BMP infantry fighting vehicles into a battle on the front line near Tonenke, a village east of Avdiivka. The serviceman said...

The liquid assets in Russia's national wealth fund fell 44% from January 2022 to December 2023. Total holdings in the fund tumbled 12% over the same period amid the war in Ukraine, per Bloomberg. Liquid assets in the fund could last just another year or two if Russia's oil export price falls below $50 a barrel, per Bloomberg Economics.

The Russian Orthodox Church this week approved a document declaring its country's self-described "special military operation" against Ukraine as a "holy war" being waged to protect Russia's "spiritual space." The declaration was made in a document approved during a gathering of the World Russian People's Council, which brought religious, cultural, and political figures together at the Orthodox Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, reports Newsweek. "From a spiritual and moral point of view, the special military operation is a Holy War, in which Russia and its people, are defending the single spiritual space of Holy Russia," said the document,...

The Italian airforce said on Friday it intercepted unidentified aircraft flying over international waters in the Baltic Sea, and two defence sources in Rome identified them as Russian planes. The two interceptions were carried out on Thursday and Friday morning by Italian Eurofighter jets based in the Polish base of Malbork as part of a NATO air policing mission, a statement said. After completing their activity, the Italian jets returned to the Polish base, the airforce added, without giving further details.

RUSSIAN INVESTIGATORS SAY ATTACKERS RECEIVED SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF CASH AND CRYPTOCURRENCY FROM UKRAINE

Vladimir Putin has said that Russian forces will destroy any F-16s delivered to Ukraine from its NATO allies "wherever they are," while at the same time insisting that Moscow had no intention of attacking any country in the alliance. During a visit to the 344th Army Aviation Centre where combat pilots are trained, in Torzhok, 160 miles northwest of Moscow, Putin was asked if Russian pilots would be "allowed to hit these targets at NATO airfields." Putin replied: "Of course, if they are used from airfields of third countries, they become a legitimate target for us, no matter where they...

NATO is considering shooting down Russian missiles that stray too close to its borders, according to a report in Polish news outlet RMF24. - Sky News

It would be nice to think that all we have to do is get out and vote to rid ourselves of these warmongers. But they control the elections, and they are in their glory. I do not see how we can avoid this war. They are doing everything in their power to prevent RFK from being on the ballot and to destroy Donald Trump, all so they retain their power with their hand puppet, Joe Biden. Before Biden was Vice President, I was at some dinner many years ago and I was not impressed with him back then. In fact,...

Enormous infernos ripped through the night sky in the occupied port city of Sevastopol. And as dawn broke this morning, Ukrainian forces announced they had hit two large Russian warships- Yamal and Azov. Both damaged vessels are Ropucha-class landing ships, 370ft long, 4,000 ton behemoths designed for D-Day-style amphibious assaults. Ukraine has attacked this type of ship before - sinking sister ships Tsezar Kunikov and Novocherkassk. Kyiv is reported to have used British Storm Shadow missiles in the strike - 600mph long-range weapons which have proved effective against the Russians. Putin's crony in Crimea, Mikhail Razvozhaev, was forced to admit...

Ukraine's armed forces are facing a serious shortage of ammunition for air defense systems to protect cities, and Russian air attacks will cause increasing losses, The Washington Post reports, citing Western officials on March 15. Ammunition for some missile defense systems could be almost exhausted by the end of March, according to two Western officials who met with Ukrainian counterparts at a security conference last month. Currently, Ukraine tries to shoot down four out of every five missiles fired at its cities. However, soon it will only be possible to try to down only one out of five, one official...

-snip- Turning to the announcement of a number of Western embassies in Russia about a terrorist threat alert, Putin called them "frankly provocative." "All this resembles outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society," he said. Head of the Central Election Commission Elle Pamfilova said on Monday that the terrorist threat alert was meant to decrease voter turnout in the 2024 presidential election.

A million people are without power across Ukraine after Russian missiles targeted energy infrastructure. There is no electricity in the second-largest city of Kharkiv, the regional head says, and more than 53,000 households in Odesa are without power. Ukraine's energy minister, German Galushchenko, accused Russia of trying to provoke "a large-scale failure of the country's energy system". Russia said it was revenge for recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. -snip- "Even last winter, attacks on our energy system weren't so bad as last night. Dozens of grid facilities have been hit. This is on a global scale." Mr Kudrytsky added...