Free Republic

THIS is the moment Vladimir Putin's gas rigs in the Black Sea burst into flames after being hammered by sea drones. Ukrainian forces strike the platforms in daring night raids using the unmanned craft as the seek to dominate the ocean and defend against Russia. The latest footage released by the valiant Ukrainians shows a number of strikes on the rigs which they believe are used to house surveillance equipment. The sea drones attack the structures at their base while air drones strike the platform. Clips show rigs engulfed in massive blazes while others show huge explosions on the platforms...

Russia's ability to outmatch Ukraine with artillery barrages on the battlefield has significantly reduced to just 1.5 Russian rounds for every Ukrainian shell fired back, Western officials have said. This compares with Russian forces launching at least five times as many artillery rounds as Ukraine could in the war previously - with the ratio at times much higher even than that. The Western officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, put the levelling out down to a "wide variety of factors". These factors include limitations in Russia's defence production lines, difficulties with transporting more rounds to the frontline by rail,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow could deploy its Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missiles system in Belarus in the second half of 2025, Russian state media said. Putin was responding to a request by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during a summit in Minsk. He said Belarus would determine the targets for Oreshniks deployed on its territory.

CHILLING footage shows Putin’s minions grabbing terrified civilians off the streets and forcing them to sign up for Vlad’s meatgrinder army. The kidnapping of a young man was caught on camera, with the video showing huge uniformed officers hauling him from a car despite his protests. He is ripped from the vehicle, manhandled and frogmarched away - likely delivered to a conscription office, according to the footage from Astra media outlet. It is illegal in Russia for the police to deliver people to conscription offices, but these cops are taking no notice. Separate footage shows dozens of migrant workers who...

Vladimir Putin has been branded a "psychopath" as he was seen in a video asking Russian soldiers who have lost their legs in the war with Ukraine whether they are "used to their new condition". -snip- In the footage, Putin is all smiles among the amputee soldiers, even asking one, "Are you used to your new condition? " The soldier responds affirmatively, answering "Yes sir, already new victories, achievements." In the chilling footage another mentions how some have been adapting for two years, still chasing victories and new goals. Putin nods approvingly, saying, "That's a very good thing. It's very...

Vladimir Putin is facing an economic crisis on multiple fronts as the rouble collapses and inflation soars. The head of the Russian Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, looks set to compound Moscow's economic misery further as she warns that inflation is continuing to rise. She warned on Wednesday that interest rates may have to be hiked further but added that the decision is “not predetermined.” Ms Nabiullina said: “We have indicated that the Central Bank is open to the possibility of raising the rate, but I want to emphasise that this is not predetermined. "Yes, there is a new pro-inflationary factor,...

Ukrainian officials are holding high-level talks with the incoming Trump administration, seeking to narrow wide differences on achieving a settlement of Kyiv’s war with Russia even before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. A top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to meet Wednesday with Keith Kellogg, Trump’s choice as special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, and Mike Waltz, the incoming national security adviser, according to a Trump transition official and several people familiar with the discussions. Kellogg has signaled support for the Biden administration’s efforts to rush weapons to Ukraine, saying it will give Trump leverage with Moscow...

The Ukrainian president is still set on joining Nato, but Trump's team seems to have ruled that out. MORE details of Donald Trump’s clever plan to bring a swift end to the war in Ukraine have emerged. Trump's top team has hatched a carrot and stick plan to force the warring leaders to the discussion table and bring peace to the region when he enters office in January. The clever scheme uses America’s military support for Ukraine as a double-edged sword to encourage Zelensky and threaten panicky Putin. If the Russian war-mongerer kept snatching land and refused to join peace...

The future U.S. President Donald Trump’s special representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has issued a direct response to Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, who dismissed Trump’s proposed peace plan for Ukraine, suggesting President Vladimir Putin would “tell it to go to hell.” In an interview aired on Fox News, Kellogg was adamant in his rebuttal to Malofeyev’s remarks, stating, “Better get back in your box and better understand President Trump, because clearly you don’t and you clearly do not understand the United States of America.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Izvestia newspaper in an interview published Wednesday that Russia sees "no grounds for negotiations yet" to end Moscow's war on Ukraine. President-elect Donald Trump's imminent return to the White House has revived speculation as to a possible deal to end Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor, which by the time Trump takes office again will be nearly three years old. Russia still occupies around 20% of Ukraine and claims to have annexed four entire regions -- Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia -- though it only partially occupies the areas it claims.

Russia could end the war in Ukraine with a nuclear strike that turns the country into a "radiation zone", an ally of Vladimir Putin has chillingly warned. Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev warned that the world is "on the brink of nuclear war". Discussing the prospect of a Russian nuclear strike on Ukraine, he added: "There will be a radiation zone nobody will ever go into in our lifetime. And the war will be over." -snip- He added: "We want a long-term peace — some sort of general agreement about the global order. Trump wants to go down in history, he'll...

-snip- "Putin has to be convinced that it's going to be too costly for Russia to continue because he wants to overthrow the government, take over the whole country, and no one has been willing to stop him until now," Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, told Newsweek. "It's a matter of putting some credible capability on the table to convince Putin that he has to stop," said Volker, who was Trump's special representative for Ukraine until September 2019. "Therefore, I'm not sure it's a matter of meeting any Russian demands, nor do I think that Zelensky's desire the...

Vladimir Putin will reject Donald Trump's proposed peace plan and would only end the conflict in Ukraine if he gives him huge concessions, a hardliner close to the Kremlin has warned. Russian tycoon Konstantin Malofeyev, who is sanctioned by the West, slammed Trump's recently picked envoy Keith Kellogg and his proposals on how to end the conflict with Kyiv. 'Kellogg comes to Moscow with his plan, we take it and then tell him to screw himself, because we don't like any of it. That'd be the whole negotiation,' Malofeyev said bluntly in an interview from a luxury Dubai resort. -snip-...

-snip- Konstantin Malofeyev, a Russian tycoon who is subject to western sanctions, told the Financial Times that President Vladimir Putin was likely to reject a peace plan proposal by Trump’s recently nominated special envoy for the conflict, Keith Kellogg. “Kellogg comes to Moscow with his plan, we take it and then tell him to screw himself, because we don’t like any of it. That’d be the whole negotiation,” Malofeyev said in an interview at a luxury resort in Dubai.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday to shelve the planned hosting of the "Friendship Games", a big multi-sports event that the International Olympic Committee had condemned as a purely political project. Russia announced last year that it planned to relaunch the competition first staged in 1984 as a Soviet-led alternative to the Los Angeles Olympics, which the USSR had boycotted in retaliation for a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games. -snip- Putin's decree, published on an official website, left open the possibility of staging the games at some point in the future pending a "special decision...

Russia and China could face economic chaos after Donald Trump threatened BRICS nations with 100% tariffs on US imports. The nine-strong alliance led by Russia and China, including Brazil, India, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, has expressed frustration with the dominance of the US dollar. According to the IMF, nearly all commodities, including oil and crops, are traded using the US dollar, accounting for around 58% of all foreign exchange reserves. The bloc is set to be joined by applicants Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Malaysia. It has said it wants to trade in non-dollar currencies to...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...