Free Republic

Six months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, signs are accumulating that the balance on the military and economic battlefields is slowly tilting the way of Kyiv and its Western backers. ... Some results of the war already seem settled. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to rewrite the ending of the Cold War by restoring Moscow’s historic sphere of influence in Eastern Europe has failed. His war on Ukraine has instead united almost all of Europe against him, revivifying the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is poised to add Sweden and Finland as new members.

Nearly five months into its senseless war against Ukraine, Russia has concocted a wild new explanation for why the Kremlin’s plans for a quick takeover fell apart so spectacularly—because Ukrainian troops were turned into superhuman killing machines during “secret experiments” in American-run biolabs, of course. Never mind the myriad reports of Russian troops refusing to fight by the thousands, sabotaging their own shoddy equipment and even deliberately wounding themselves to abandon the war, Russian lawmakers claim the real setback for Moscow was “drugged up” Ukrainian soldiers. That claim was made Monday by two Russian lawmakers heading up a commission to...

Grace period for $100mn in interest payments ends on Sunday evening. Russia could default on its foreign debt for the first time this century as the clock ticks down on a pair of overdue interest payments blocked by western sanctions. About $100mn worth of interest on Russian government debt is due to bondholders by Sunday night, the end of a 30-day grace period during which the country must make the payments to avoid defaulting. Russia said it had sent the funds to investors, but financial sanctions imposed on the country following its invasion of Ukraine have hampered Moscow’s ability to...

Former CIA Director John Brennan said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that Russian President Vladimir Putin “badly miscalculated” when he invaded Ukraine. Brennan said, “I think it’s a combination of, he has now his own prism of looking at the world and Ukraine. Also, I think he has badly miscalculated because I don’t think he has anticipated the consequences and the reaction inside Ukraine, where nationalism runs strong and deep. So I do believe that what we’re going to be seeing in the coming days and weeks is going to be fierce, fierce Ukrainian resistance to this. Even though the Ukrainian...