Free Republic

Under pressure in various sectors of the frontline, with its power plants and energy grid under relentless attacks, and trying to find a peace proposal that would keep it from losing 20 per cent of its former territory for good, Ukraine is also under financial threat, as concerning news arise over its debt restructuring efforts. Kiev could default on its enormous debts as early as next month unless it manages to negotiate a restructuring deal with its creditors, The Economist reported (behind paywall). With the onset of the war in February 2022, bondholders granted Ukraine a two-year debt freeze. That...

U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump exchanged foreign policy views on Russia's war against Ukraine during the first presidential debate of the 2024 U.S. election in Atlanta, Georgia on June 27. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, boasted that he could easily bring about a settlement between Kyiv and Moscow and criticized President Volodymyr Zelensky, while Biden maintained support for ongoing military aid to Ukraine and a strong NATO. "I will have that war settled between (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin and Zelensky as president-elect. Before I take office on Jan. 20, I'll have that war settled," Trump claimed...

ROME — Pope Francis asserted this week Christians, Jews and Muslims, all worship the one God and are “brothers and sisters.” “Jesus taught us to welcome one another as brothers and sisters,” the pontiff told a delegation from the Bologna Mosque in northern Italy. “And this is true first of all for us, Christians, Jews, and Muslims, who worship the One God.” Members of all three faiths refer to Abraham as “our father in faith,” he said, “albeit in different ways.” “In today’s world, our witness of fraternity is indispensable and very precious,” he added. Sincere and respectful dialogue between...

As the war situation gets more difficult by the day, and against the background of his expired Presidential mandate in May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has his reasons to be worried about being driven out of power the hard way. To prevent this outcome, the embattled leader is ordering a complete purge of the Department of State Protection, after members were arrested on suspicion of plotting assassinations. Reuters reported: “President Volodymyr Zelensky told the new chief of Ukraine’s state guard service to clear its ranks of people discrediting it after two of its officers were accused of plotting to assassinate...

The U.S. House of Representatives has recently passed an amendment as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025. The amendment H.R. 8070 will automatically register all draft-age male U.S. residents with the Selective Service System for a possible military draft, based on information from other Federal databases. This new system of automatic draft registration would replace the existing system, in place since 1980, in which young men have the freedom to decide whether or not to sign up for the draft. According to People’s World, the automatic draft registration proposal was initiated by the Selective...

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Senate Republicans on Thursday announced a hold policy on numerous President Joe Biden nominees in response to the 46th president’s “radical lawfare” against former President Donald Trump and other political opponents. Vance led an effort alongside Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Eric Schmitt (R-MO) to block swift confirmation of roughly four dozen of Biden’s nominees throughout various positions of the government. This includes judicial nominees, a nominee for deputy undersecretary for the Treasury Department, and a general counsel nominee for the Office of the Director of...

With his constitutional Presidential mandate expired, the ‘champion for democracy’, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky is facing the discredit by the Russian enemies. Recently re-elected in a landslide, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s has been repeatedly clear about how Moscow sees the Ukrainian leader as lacking legitimacy. For the first time, in a press conference in France alongside President Emmanuel Macron, Zelensky addressed the allegations and dismissed them. Reuters reported: President Volodymyr Zelensky said his legitimacy is recognized and determined by the Ukrainian people while criticizing that of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “‘President Zelensky’s legitimacy is recognized by the people of Ukraine....

4:22 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that if Donald Trump tries to force Kyiv into accepting a peace deal with Russia he would become a “loser” president and would risk sparking a Third World War. While asserting that he has “no strategy yet” if former President Trump returns to the White House, Zelensky appeared to set out his opening negotiating position in case the presumptive Republican nominee and current frontrunner defeats 81-year-old Democrat President Joe Biden in November. Speaking with Britain’s left-wing Guardian newspaper, Zelensky said of Trump’s desire to end the war: “Does he want to become a...

And so we’ve come to the point of the war in Ukraine in which the west’s ‘Knight in Shining armor’, the ‘defender of democracy’ Volodymyr Zelensky has outrun his Constitutional Presidential mandate, and is now in power only by virtue of the martial law he enacted. That is just the most dramatic of the absolutely disheartening (for Kiev) series of developments. To begin with, a series of videos have surfaced showing how the streets of Ukraine now are deserted, with men hiding from conscription into the army – and somehow, everyone else seemed to have stayed at home, too. Watch:...

Conservative-Populist Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot today and wounded at a government meeting. According to reports Prime Minister Fico is alive and in a helicopter on his way to a hospital in Bratislava. There is video of Robert Fico being dragged to this car after he was shot. BREAKING: Slovak PM Robert Fico taken to his car after being shot several times. He was later picked up by an ambulance helicopter and flown to a hospital. His current condition is unknown pic.twitter.com/bKoJfwgqgz — Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) May 15, 2024 The Gateway Pundit heard from our close friend in...

A Florida man was arrested for a crime that could be mistaken for a headline in the Onion or the Babylon Bee. As the Smoking Gun reported, 20-year-old Khanye Edrayieze Medley was arrested on Monday by Clearwater Police on a domestic battery charge. He allegedly got into a verbal altercation with his sister, who he lives with, that turned physical in a most unusual way. The police affidavit shows that Medley grabbed a bag of chicken from his sister and began hurling pieces at her during an argument on Sunday. One piece of chicken hit her in the back and...

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that Ukraine will become a member of NATO. This announcement was made during his visit to Kyiv to discuss the ongoing conflict and future support from the alliance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The NATO chief acknowledged delays in support that have had severe repercussions on the battlefield, emphasizing that although Ukraine has been outgunned, it is not too late for them to prevail with increased support on the way. Stoltenberg revealed that following President Zelenskyy’s appeal at the recent NATO-Ukraine Council meeting, NATO members, including the United States, the UK, Germany, and the...

The Senate has approved a massive $95 billion emergency foreign aid package with no U.S. border security. A group of RINOs joined Democrats to support the bill. The measure passed by a vote of 79 to 18. The passing of the bill saw 48 Democrats joined by 31 Republicans in favor, with the majority of the RINOs supporting the foreign aid efforts. However, 15 Republicans broke ranks to vote against the package, joining three Democrats in opposition. The finalized bill encompasses extensive provisions: $47.7 billion through the Defense Department to support Ukraine’s military with training, equipment, weapons, and logistical aid....

In the last weeks, there has been increased chatter on the Ukrainian side about an imminent Russian attack on the large city of Kharkov, located near the border. Sure enough, its power facilities have been heavily damaged by massive missile strikes. Today, the attacks went a little further, as a cruise missile struck and broke in half a 240-meter television tower. The attack would be part of a ‘deliberate effort by Moscow to make Ukraine’s second largest city uninhabitable,’ according to President Volodymyr Zelensky. Footage going viral online shows the main mast of the television tower breaking off and falling...

Democrat members of Congress waved Ukranian flags on the House floor after voting to give them another $60.8 billion in taxpayer funds. The $95.3 billion foreign aid package funds Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan — with nothing for Americans. WATCH: @SpeakerJohnson’s House of Representatives gleefully cheering for Ukraine as they send $60 BILLION taxpayer dollars down the drain. These politicians are TRAITORS! ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE! pic.twitter.com/of6fJiPz8L — Washington, D.C. Young Republicans (@WashingtonDCYRs) April 20, 2024 On Saturday, the package was approved 311-112 with all of the “nay” votes from Republicans. “Ukrainian flags fly in the chamber of the UNITED STATES...

Joe Biden, Democrats, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and the RINOs are colluding on an aid package for Ukraine, which may upset plans by some Republican lawmakers to remove Johnson from the Speaker’s chair. The $95 billion package provides an additional “$60.84 billion to address the conflict in Ukraine and assist our regional partners as they counter Russia, $23.2 billion of which will be used for replenishment of U.S. weapons, stocks, and facilities.” It also provides aid to both Israel and, reportedly, Palestine. “I will sign this into law immediately to send a message to the world,” said Joe Biden in...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who faces ramped-up threats of a motion to vacate, will not have enough Republican votes for a rule to merge separate foreign aid bills for Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine, meaning he will need to turn to Democrats for help. Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) both announced Tuesday morning that they are against the rule. Biggs said he supported Johnson’s initial plan “announced in conference to allow the House to vote on the various aid packages separately. But his since-announced intent to merge them together before sending them to the Senate is...

About a month ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky came to public and stated that Kiev forces had lost a grand total of 30 thousand troops in the war. It was a shame to see how the world’s MSM sheepishly accepted these figures, that everyone knew were not accurate in the least. Russian defense minister Sergey Shoigu had put the number of Ukrainian losses at over 600 thousand – and apparently the real numbers may be an order of magnitude greater. A high-ranking Polish general has just gone on the public record saying that Ukrainian losses in its confrontation with the...

President Trump is on a roll today. The Republican nominee for US President released his second “Visiting Angels” themed campaign ad roasting lost and confused Joe Biden. This comes after Old Joe lost his way again yesterday during a so-called campaign stop in front of a couple dozen supporters in Michigan on Thursday. President Trump released a similar ad in February starring Old Joe and octogenarian Nancy Pelosi. As The Gateway Pundit’s Cristina Laila previously reported, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi were spotted holding hands and shuffling across the tarmac in San Francisco like nursing home patients toward Marine One...

American missionaries trapped in Haiti pleaded for rescue on Tuesday, reporting constant gunfire around their hideaway and corpses rotting in the streets. The group’s leader said the only assistance they have received from the Biden administration was advice to “be safe.” “Okay, well, that’s not really helpful,” Jill Dolan of the group Love A Neighbor said of the response she received from the U.S. Embassy when she asked for help getting her family out of Haiti. “My fear is that we will be caught in the middle of something really dangerous. We’re already on the front lines of it; we’re...