Free Republic

Russia is having to use computer chips intended for home appliances to repair its military hardware due to the impact of US sanctions. "We have reports from Ukrainians that when they find Russian military equipment on the ground, it's filled with semiconductors that they took out of dishwashers and refrigerators," commerce secretary Gina Raimondo told the Senate Committee on Appropriations. Raimondo recently met with Ukrainian officials who told her that they found parts from refrigerators and commercial and industrial machines when searching captured or abandoned Russian tanks. Raimondo told the committee that exports of US technology to Russia have fallen...

Wrecked Russian fighter jets are being found with rudimentary GPS receivers "taped to the dashboards" in Ukraine because their inbuilt navigation systems are so bad, the UK's defense secretary, Ben Wallace, said. Speaking at the National Army Museum in London, Wallace commemorated those who died in World War II and called Russia's invasion of Ukraine "senseless and self-defeating." He added there was evidence suggesting Russian military hardware was being pushed to breaking point by the invasion. "'GPS' receivers have been found taped to the dashboards of downed Russian Su-34s so pilots knew where they were, due to poor quality of...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told President Joe Biden to "calm down the messaging" about the threat of a Russian invasion because it was stirring panic, CNN reported, citing an unnamed Ukrainian official. Biden and Zelensky spoke by phone Thursday amid rising tensions between Russia — which is amassing tens of thousands of troops at Ukraine's border — Ukraine, the US, and NATO. Biden told Zelensky on Thursday that a Russian invasion could happen as soon as February, when the ground freezes over, tweeted Emily Horne, White House National Security Council spokesperson. However, Zelensky told Biden in the call that Ukraine...