Free Republic

The Atlantic Council released a new report documenting Russia’s direct involvement in the conflict in the Ukraine based on what it calls publicly available information and open-sourced investigative techniques. Damon Wilson, one of the co-authors of “Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin’s War in Ukraine,” said Thursday at a panel discussion in Washington that the report shows “we don’t have a Ukraine problem. We have a Putin problem.” He characterized the techniques the council in its report used as “a democratization of intelligence gathering.” Maksymilian Czuperski, another co-author, said the group was able to leverage what people share on social media,...

For years, the tally of Russian troops who died at war has been a state secret. Now, President Vladimir Putin says his government won't reveal the number of military deaths during peacetime either. A new presidential decree puts Russia's military losses "in peacetime during special operations" on country's list of state secrets alongside "information disclosing losses in manpower in wartime," Russia's state-run TASS news agency reported Thursday. Critics of the Kremlin were quick to tie the move to the simmering conflict in Ukraine. "Not only is this decree a blatant attack on freedom of expression, it also has sinister undertones...

Old habits die hard.  Vladimir Putin, being the old KGB thug that he is, is using every tool at his disposal to attack the west without outright making war.  That includes the communications realm and the practice of psy-ops and good old fashioned propaganda (as invented by American PR practitioners in the 1920s, actually). On Wednesday, Peter Pomerantsev, a senior fellow at the Legatum Institute, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the Kremlin is flexing its media muscles in a number of ways: Russian media is broadcast outside the country and reaches as many as 30...

New details about the hurried withdrawal of Russian Special Forces troops from the 3rd Guards Spetsnaz Brigade, military unit 21208 from Tolyatti, became available from the Ukrainian counter-espionage office, and information leaked in specialized forums. After the capture on May 16, 2015, in Luhansk Oblast of two Russian Spetsnaz troops, Captain Erofeev and Sergeant Aleksandrov, their unit was immediately withdrawn from a temporary base in occupied territory and hastily transferred from Millerovo airfield in Rostov Oblast to their home base in the Russian city of Tolyatti. PREVIOUSLY, it was assumed that such a HASTY withdrawal happened because of the disclosure...

Russia is so desperate to hide its military involvement in Ukraine that it has brought in mobile crematoriums to destroy the bodies of its war dead, say U.S. lawmakers who traveled to the war-torn country this spring. The U.S. and NATO have long maintained that thousands of Russian troops are fighting alongside separatists inside eastern Ukraine, and that the Russian government is obscuring not only the presence but also the deaths of its soldiers there. In March, NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow told a conference, "Russian leaders are less and less able to conceal the fact that Russian soldiers...

Campaigners are urging Facebook to act against what they describe as Russian attempts to silence pro-Ukrainian voices. They say numerous accounts critical of the Kremlin have been suspended following false reports of abuse filed from Russia. Ukraine's president has urged Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to create a special administrative office to deal with the complaints. Addressing Mr Zuckerberg on Facebook, President Petro Poroshenko said: "We have to use all available channels to get reaction from global companies. "Ukraine does need a Ukrainian Facebook office!" Underneath, he shared Mark Zuckerberg's status inviting questions for his regular "Townhall Q&A" session on 14...

Dramatic Battle Violates Ukraine Cease-Fire Published 28 May 2015 RFE/RL has recorded dramatic evidence of the cease-fire in Ukraine being violated, with pro-government forces coming under sustained shelling in the village of Shyrokyne. The attack, filmed on May 24, resulted in one Ukrainian soldier dying of shrapnel wounds and another being wounded. Ukrainian military officials said Russian-backed separatists were using weapons of 120-150 mm caliber, which should have been withdrawn 50 kilometers from the front line under the terms of the February cease-fire agreement, although this could not be independently confirmed. There have been frequent reports of shelling at Shyrokyne,...

Alexandrov, 28, says he's a Russian soldier who was captured in eastern Ukraine after being sent there on active duty with Russian special forces to help separatists fighting Kiev. He said he was serving on a three-year contract. "I never tore it up, I wrote no resignation request," he said. "I was carrying out my orders." Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the face of widespread evidence to the contrary, has repeatedly said there are no Russian soldiers in Ukraine — only volunteers who have gone to help the separatists of their own accord.

A Washington-based think tank on international affairs has released a scathing report on Russia's "direct military intervention" in eastern Ukraine, concluding that President Vladimir Putin has led his country into war and lied about it. The report by the Atlantic Council also charges that Putin is using the decrease in hostilities that has followed a February cease-fire deal to reinforce Russian-backed rebels with troops and weaponry in order "to prepare for the next stage of fighting." At the same time, the Atlantic Council researchers say, "the Kremlin is building its case that forces engaged in any future outbreaks of fighting...

Russia is at war with Ukraine. Russian citizens and soldiers are fighting and dying in a war of their government's own making. Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to deny Russian involvement in the fighting, but the evidence is overwhelming and indisputable. Drawing upon open source information, Hiding in Plain Sight: Putin's War in Ukraine provides irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine. This report, the result of an Atlantic Council Working Group launched to examine direct Russian military involvement in Ukraine, has five key findings: Satellite images confirm the movement of Russian troops and camp buildups along...

This video is going international viral! Imagine, I just received again from pastor in Ukraine with "Amen" comment! https://www.facebook.com/wayman.gresham/videos/845152372206246/?pnref=story CAN YOU PREACH LIKE THAT? I PRAYERFULLY CHALLENGE YOU!

<p>Law bans communist and Nazi regime symbols and propaganda. Ukraine's de-communisation law has come into force on Wednesday, May 21. The law was adopted by the Ukrainian parliament on April 9 and signed by President Petro Poroshenko on May 15.</p>

https: //informnapalm.org/9118-hronolo ... As reported in InformNapalm, two wounded Russian commandos were captured in a battle near the city of Happiness. This information is entered around 19:00 May 16 edition of our site. Also: Russian citizen Yevgeny Yerofeyev captain GRU https://youtu.be/bunrIh3DS20 VIDEO [English subtitles]

VIDEO captured Russian troops Background: Aidar Battalion destroys a Russian Spetsnaz incursion into Shchastya and captures two wounded Spetsnaz troops Ukrainian Military destroys a Russian Spetsnaz incursion into Shchastya and captures two wounded Spetsnaz troops UPDATED: 5-18-2015 After fierce fighting with a Russian diversion reconnaissance group (DRG) in the vicinity of the town of Shchastya on Saturday April 16, 2015, two Russian soldiers were captured – a captain and a sergeant – both of the Spetsnaz GRU unit from Tolyatti, Samara Oblast, Russia. Both were wounded, although severity of their wounds is unknown at this time. The total loss of...

Moscow says it’s sticking to a ceasefire agreement. Meanwhile, it’s piling up troops and weapons for something that doesn’t look so peaceful. The war in Ukraine may have faded largely from international headlines, but Vladimir Putin’s drip-drip invasion continues. In the last two weeks, forensic evidence, some of which has been reported by monitor organizations and senior Western diplomats, the rest corroborated by eyewitness photography and video, only confirms what the U.S. fears most: A summer offensive is inevitable. On May 5, the Ukrainian government released new data which says that they have lost 28 towns to Russian-backed separatists since...

At a recent White House science fair celebrating inventors, a Girl Scout who helped design a Lego-powered page-turning device asked President Obama what he had ever thought up or prototyped. Stumbling for an answer, he replied: “I came up with things like, you know, health care.” Ah, yes. “Health care.” Remember when the president’s signature Obamacare health insurance exchanges were going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, the remote control, jogger strollers, Siri, the Keurig coffee maker, driverless cars and Legos all rolled into one? The miraculous, efficient, cost-saving, innovative 21st-century government-run “marketplaces” were supposed to put the...

WASHINGTON -- The House passed a nearly $612 billion defense policy bill Friday despite President Barack Obama's veto threat and Democratic worries that the measure opens the door to sharp cuts in domestic spending later this year. The vote was 269 to 151 for the bill, which maps next year's military and national security programs. A 2011 bipartisan budget deal placed caps on defense and domestic spending. The defense bill that passed skirts those limits by putting $89 billion of the total into an emergency war-fighting fund, which is exempt from the caps. Democrats predict that Republicans won't attempt to...

Senate panel approves $612B defense bill that overhauls benefits The Senate Armed Services Committee passed its 2016 defense authorization bill by a 22-4 vote on Thursday. Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced the results of vote, hailing the $612 billion measure as a "reform bill" with "overwhelming bipartisan support." Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-R.I.), however, was one of the four 'no' votes against the bill, which boosted the Pentagon's war funding account $38 billion by over the president's request. Democrats are opposed to the move, which they say skirts budget caps on federal spending in order to boost defense spending, but...

The captured soldiers near area of Happiness Settlement Togliatti GRU Yesterday, during fierce fighting with the Russian DRG, imbued in the area of ​​the settlement Happiness, were captured two Russian servicemen - soldiers Togliatti GRU, the captain and the sergeant Armed Forces. Both were injured and the severity of injuries is currently unknown. Total losses from the attackers are specified, from the Ukrainian security forces killed two and three wounded. For information about these events on his page on facebook informed volunteer team InformNapalm Roman Burco: And also: Today, May 17, the headquarters of ATO also confirmed the Russian prisoners...

What is the war: It when the wife of your 'sworn brother' has a Birthday, and all platoon gathers money so that he could buy her a gold chain and a pendent. - it when you have tea in the morning with a friend, and at lunchtime you learned that he died. - it when faithless people cross themselves and thank God after each mine bows up and did not get them. - it is when the church questions is it right or wrong to help a soldier who fights with weapons in hand, while sinful people are selling their...