Free Republic

GOP Senators trying to destroy Trump’s peace deal between Russia, the United States, and Ukraine who have stock portfolios heavily invested into the defense contracting industry is a prime example of why insider-trading cannot continue in Congress and yes, it’s happening even though it’s super illegal.

"...Ukrainian defensive line is collapsing and Russia is advancing at a very rapid pace now and that that advance is going to continue. There's nothing the West can do to stop it. The numbers are just against them. Uh right now according to the Russian Ministry of Defense they are inflicting a minimum of 40,000 casualties killed and wounded on Ukraine per month. In addition and you know as you know Institute for the Study of War and the Atlantic Council are not exactly what you'd call uh pro-Russian stooges. They're just the opposite. They are the most ardent cheerleaders...

Russia’s Central Bank has for the first time begun selling physical gold from its reserves as part of Finance Ministry operations to fund the state budget, the Bank said on Wednesday. The move mirrors previous transactions involving gold from the National Wealth Fund (NWF), which until now were largely virtual. In those operations, the government sold gold to the Central Bank, keeping bullion in the country’s reserves. Russia’s gold holdings exceed 2,300 tons, the fifth-largest reserves in the world. “With domestic gold market liquidity having increased in recent years, the Bank of Russia now conducts equivalent operations on the domestic...

Ukraine's anti-corruption bureau said on Monday that it was conducting a large-scale operation to uncover corruption in the country's energy sector. "The activities of a high-level criminal organization have been documented," the bureau said about the investigation which involves 1,000 hours of audio recordings and took 15 months of work. "Its members have built a large-scale corruption scheme to influence strategic enterprises in the public sector, in particular JSC 'Energoatom'," according to the post on the Telegram messaging app.

As Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, then head of Ukraine’s state-owned national power company Ukrenergo, was scrambling to keep the lights on.Somehow, he succeeded and continued to do so every year, earning the respect of energy executives worldwide by ensuring the country was able to withstand Russian missile and drone strikes on its power grid and avoid catastrophic blackouts — until he was abruptly forced to resign in 2024, that is.Kudrytskyi’s dismissal was decried by many in the energy industry and also prompted alarm in Brussels. At the time, Kudrytskyi told POLITICO...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has deployed around 170,000 troops in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region where they are trying to capture the stronghold of Pokrovsk in a major push for a battlefield victory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday.“The situation in Pokrovsk is difficult,” Zelenskyy said, while also rejecting recent Russian claims that the devastated city is surrounded after more than a year of fighting. He acknowledged that some Russian units had infiltrated the city, but insisted that Ukrainian defenders are weeding them out.“There are Russians in Pokrovsk,” Zelenskyy told a media briefing in Kyiv. “They are being destroyed, gradually...

Trump’s announcement Wednesday evening that he was, for the first time, imposing sanctions on Russia was welcomed by Kyiv and its supporters, signalling that Trump was turning away from his appeals to Putin in favor of a pressure campaign to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine. Senate Republicans and Democrats are laying the groundwork to hammer Putin with a slew of other sanctions. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday advanced a trio of bills meant to punish Russia and its enablers. This includes labeling Russia a State Sponsor of Terrorism for its abduction of Ukrainian children; strengthening the U.S. ability...

Let’s put the events of the last 72 hours into context.On Monday and Tuesday, Russian oil refineries in NATO countries Hungary and Romania suddenly, and simultaneously, have mysterious explosions and catastrophic fires {citation}}. On Wednesday, NATO head Mark Rutte comes to visit President Trump in the White House, and at the end of the day, the same Russian company, Lukoil, whose refinery exploded in Romania, suddenly becomes sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury. These events are not disconnected.President Trump then disputes a Wall Street Journal report, further saying he did not give approval, nor does he know where NATO long-range missiles...

President Donald Trump’s working lunch with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday turned acrimonious when the US leader insisted Ukraine make territorial concessions to Russia to end the war, according to European officials briefed on the meeting. Trump, who would later endorse a freeze in current battle lines as part of a peace settlement, grew frustrated and raised his voice multiple times, the officials said. The episode was the latest chapter in the fraught relationship between the two men, and amounted to another shift in Trump’s approach to how the war will be settled. Last month, after meeting Zelensky...

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy might have come to the White House for Tomahawks, but President Donald Trump and he agreed against escalation and a move toward peace, with Trump issuing a directive to Russia and Ukraine to "stop where the are." "The meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine was very interesting, and cordial, but I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL!" Trump wrote Friday night on Truth Social. "Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts. They should...

BRUSSELS (AP) — Germany on Wednesday pledged more than $2 billion in military aid for Ukraine, as the government in Kyiv signaled that it would need $120 billion in 2026 to stave off Russia's nearly four-year all-out war.Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Germany would buy $500 million worth of U.S. weapons for Ukraine under a new program to fast-track military equipment. Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Sweden said that they would also participate in the funding initiative.Pistorius said that Germany's “package addresses a number of urgent requirements of Ukraine. It provides air defense systems, Patriot (missile) interceptors, radar systems and...

United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said “firepower” is coming to Ukraine through European nations’ purchases of US weapons, but whether that includes American-made Tomahawk missiles is still not clear. “Firepower, that’s what is coming,” said Hegseth, backing up comments from NATO chief Mark Rutte as the security alliance’s defense ministers gathered in Brussels. He added that “commitments” made by European nations would soon turn into “capabilities” for Ukraine.The weapons purchases are being made under the new Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative, which has already seen $2 billion pledged for military equipment for Ukraine, with more expected to...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday, according to an administration official, a Western official and a Ukrainian embassy spokesperson. Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., Olga Stefanishyna, confirmed that Trump invited Zelenskyy to a meeting this week, Ukrainian Embassy spokesperson Halyna Yusypiuk said. The visit, previously reported by the Financial Times, comes as Trump said the U.S. is considering approving Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine, adding that they would be “a new step of aggression” in that country's war against Russia. If the administration provided the long-range missiles, it would...

This is necessary to end the war and ensure a just and lasting peace in UkraineLONDON, October 10. /TASS/. The United Kingdom, France, and Germany are working together on the potential expropriation of Russian sovereign assets, the UK prime minister's office said in a statement following a phone call between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Vladimir Zelensky. "Reflecting on his discussions with the leaders of France and Germany this morning, the Prime Minister said all three countries were united in wanting to drive progress towards using the full value of the immobilized Russian sovereign assets to end the war...

Ukrainian officials were left “bewildered and disappointed” by Vice President Joe Biden’s December 2015 trip to Kyiv, during which he gave a speech decrying corruption as a “cancer” — with the Ukrainians accusing the US of a “double standard” given Biden’s family ties to corrupt energy firm Burisma, a trove of newly declassified Obama-era intelligence reveals. In an extreme departure from normal practice, the report on Ukrainian displeasure was suppressed at the request of Biden’s then-national security adviser, Dr. Colin Kahl, and did not appear in the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB), according to a senior CIA official who briefed journalists...

Moscow is hopeful that Washington will hear its message on the potential supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, Maria Zakharova statedMOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. If the United States makes the decision to supply Kiev with Tomahawk long-range missiles, it will do irreparable damage to US-Russian relations, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said. "A corresponding decision by the US administration, if made, will not just send the confrontation into a downward spiral, but also do irreparable damage to Russian-US relations, which have just begun to display certain elements indicating the resumption of a bilateral dialogue," the diplomat said,...

Potential supplies of these missiles will not be able to change the battlefield situation for the Kiev regime, Dmitry Peskov emphasizedMOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. Potential supplies of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kiev will be a serious spiral of escalation, since such weapons can be equipped with nuclear warheads, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said. "This will imply a serious spiral of escalation, which, however, will not be able to change the battlefield situation for the Kiev regime. But it is important to bear in mind in this context, putting aside various nuances, that these missiles can be equipped with...

Then-Vice President Joe Biden’s team intervened in February 2016 to prevent the CIA from disseminating an intelligence report to policymakers about the perceptions senior Ukrainian officials held about his son’s business dealings, newly declassified memos show. The request that the intelligence community withhold the report from others in the U.S. government by Biden’s national security advisor was “extremely rare and unusual,” a senior CIA official told Just the News. “I just spoke with VP/NSA and he would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated,” the vice president’s Presidential Daily Brief briefer told the CIA. “Thanks for understanding.” The report, reviewed...

Trump is clearly listening to the NEOCONS, and he may believe their BS that Russia’s economy is collapsing, so Russia can be defeated in three days, as Kinzinger was claiming. Mark Rubio is a Neocon. I believe Trump hired him as a compromise to the Neocons. But he is taking us into World War III in slow motion. Trump is listening to the wrong people, and he had better look unbiased at why Putin is being put into a precarious position. He has insulted the dignity of Russia and reduced it to a meaningless 4th-world country. If Putin is replaced...

fter barely six months in office, President Donald Trump has gone from peacemaker to warmonger. He attacked Iran and is threatening more strikes, bombarded Yemen’s Ansar Allah militants on behalf of Israel and Europe, is encouraging the former to conquer Gaza, and is increasing U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine cataclysm.War with Russia is the most immediate danger. Its invasion of its neighbor was a tragedy, but requires U.S. avoidance, not involvement. Throughout most of America’s history, Ukraine has been ruled from Moscow. The Ukrainian people have long suffered under that relationship, but Washington never considered going to war on Kiev’s...