Free Republic

Since last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has postponed several official visits to Turkey. A multitude of reasons have been offered by officials. Some have said Putin has been avoiding any countries that were not part of the Soviet Union since the Ukraine war began. Others have put it down to the Russian elections earlier this year. However, sources familiar with Russian thinking told Middle East Eye that Putin’s conditions to visit Ankara are the primary reason for the constant delay. Putin would like to fly to Turkey with Russian fighter jet escorts, the sources said, possibly concerned by Ukraine's...

Budanov has touted its capabilities using much smaller and cheaper combat and reconnaissance drones as well as naval UAVs which have been used to attack Russia's Black Sea Fleet. Three days earlier, Budanov had said in a Facebook post that personnel from Ukrainian intelligence were working with specialists to develop drones which can hit targets up to 1,800 km away (1,200 miles) away and suggested that Kyiv's cyber experts had located Russia's weak spots, which would be later targeted. A map produced by Newsweek shows the radius of this drone range that Ukraine says it possesses which from Kyiv, reaches...

Vladimir Putin has awoken to one of the largest bombardments on Moscow and other parts of Russia after 30 months of bloodshed. Ukraine unleashed 144 drones, targeting three airports in the capital and lighting up residential buildings in the region of Moscow, during what the Kremlin called a ‘terrorist attack supported by the UK and US’. Debris from aircraft damaged at least two high-rise buildings in the Ramenskoye district in the early hours of Tuesday, setting several flats on fire. A 46-year-old woman was killed and three people were injured, governor Andrei Vorobyov said on Telegram. He added that 43...

DRAMATIC footage shows the moment Ukraine launched over 140 drones into Russia hitting Moscow in its biggest ever UAV attack on the capital. The massive barrage struck key airports in the capital and sparked fires in a residential area just 30 miles south of the Kremlin, killing one woman. Kyiv's kamikaze drones struck the Ramenskoye district just outside of the city, with dramatic pictures showing wrecked apartment blocks. Scene footage showed two high-rise buildings in the area that were hit with flats inside set on fire. It was unclear how many drones reached Moscow itself but some 15 were downed...

Russia's air defence units destroyed at least seven Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow, while 59 of the air weapons were downed over the Bryansk region near the border with Ukraine, local officials said on Tuesday. "According to preliminary information, there is no damage or injuries at the site of the fall of the debris," Moscow's Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app. The drones were destroyed in the Lyubertsy and Ramenskoye districts of the Moscow region, as well as in the Podolsk city district, Sobyanin said. Podolsk is some 38 km (24 miles) south of the...

Russia's banks have practically emptied their stash of yuan, largely because Chinese financial firms are spooked from doing business with the nation. Lenders have urged Russia's central bank to address a yuan liquidity shortage in the nation, with insiders saying that access to the Chinese currency was running dry, Reuters reported. Russia's ruble dropped nearly 5% against the yuan earlier this week, Reuters noted. The drop came shortly after Russia's finance ministry suggested the Central Bank of Russia would shrink its daily yuan sales, with central bankers selling just $200 million a day, down from the $7.3 billion sold daily...

CNN has obtained exclusive video that appears to show Ukrainian troops trying to surrender to Russian forces, only to be gunned down in cold blood.

RUSSIA has declared a state of emergency in one of its regions after Kyiv launched a huge kamikaze drone strike on a missile storage facility. Video circulating on social media showed explosions erupt in Russia's Voronezh region after a hit on one of Vlad's ammunition dumps. Authorities were urgently evacuating residents after the Ukrainians struck around 3am. A huge blaze burned and there were follow-up explosions throughout the night. Footage taken from a highway showed constant explosions as the night sky was lit up by bright orange flashes. A major highway was closed while shells and other munitions exploded. The...

Huge plumes of smoke and fierce fires erupted into the skies above the Russian city of Voronezh last night. Local residents in the southwestern Russian city recorded the devastating aftermath of an overnight Ukrainian drone strike. Videos showing a large fire in which explosions can clearly be heard were shared across Telegram. The explosive attack reportedly blew up an ammunition depot - the second time a drone strike has hit an ammunition depot in Voronezh in just two weeks. At the end of August, Ukrainian drones managed to blow up almost 5,000 tonnes of Russian weapons. Following this attack, explosions...

Russia’s future will be characterized by a smaller population. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war has virtually guaranteed that for generations to come, Russia’s population will be not only smaller, but also older, more fragile, and less well-educated. It will almost certainly be ethnically less Russian and more religiously diverse. While some might view diversity as a strength, many Russians do not see it this way. In a world with hordes of people on the move to escape war, persecution, poverty, and the increasing impact of climate change, xenophobic political rhetoric sells well. Putin has spoken frequently about Russia’s demographic problems,...

Dramatic video footage captures the moment a flesh-melting Ukrainian drone sets ablaze a tree line hiding Russian military positions. The UAV approaches the trees before spewing out a wall of molten thermite that scorches the ground below it. The drone leaves a trail of fire behind as it disappears into the night sky after its devastating attack. The video was posted to social media by Ukraine's 60th Mechanised Brigade. “Strike Drones are our wings of vengeance, bringing fire straight from the sky!” the brigade wrote on its Facebook page.

Vladimir Putin's lover snapped with impatience at a weeping young gymnastics star in the same week she was revealed to have two young sons with the Kremlin dictator. -snip- But extraordinary footage from this week shows Kabaeva - an Olympic gold-medal winning rhythmic gymnast - berating talented Karolina Tarasova during a training session in Sochi, reducing the teenager to tears. The girl, from Putin-occupied Donetsk in Ukraine, is a student at Kabaeva's elite gymnastics Sky Grace Academy in Sochi, which released the videos of the grumpy secret Kremlin first lady, who appears to be wearing a wedding ring, possibly suggesting...

President Vladimir Putin has two young sons with former Olympic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, both of which have been living in secret since their births, according to a report by a Russian investigative group started by a former billionaire Putin foe, though Putin and Kabaeva have denied romantic ties for more than a decade. Putin and Kabaeva share two sons, Ivan Putin and Vladimir Putin Jr., who were born in 2015 and 2019, respectively, according to the Dossier Center, a Russian investigative news organization that cited unnamed sources who claimed to regularly see the children. Putin, 71, has publicly acknowledged having...

GROWING up in a huge mansion, filled with unlimited toys and animals sounds like any kid’s dream - unless you’re the child of Vladimir Putin. It has been revealed that the Russian president has two secret sons, Ivan, nine, and Vladimir Jr, five, with glamorous Olympic gymnast partner Alina Kabaeva - who once posed naked for Maxim. Putin - who also has three daughters - was apparently so happy when his eldest son was born that he shouted: “Hurray! Finally! A boy!” However, he has been hiding his sons from the world at his heavily guarded Lake Valdai residence for...

Su-35: Russia’s High-Tech Fighter Struggles in Ukraine Conflict The Su-35 “Flanker-E” was Russia’s attempt to keep pace with their American and Chinese great power rivals. On paper, it’s a powerhouse. In practice, the Su-35 has had a mixed record. This is not because the Russians are incapable of building competitive warplanes. They’ve got those. It is more likely because the Su-35 is a Russian warbird that incorporates many Western military components, making the production of these birds difficult as well as the fact the Russians have had to use the Su-35 in ways the plane was not designed to be...

A Russian private military company (PMC) told the Express that their commander stands by his calls for the overthrow of Vladimir Putin. Georgy Zakrevsky is the founder of the Paladin PMC, one of many shadowy military groups like the former Wagner Group militia, that are linked to the Kremlin. The militia commander launched a blistering attack on the Russian president during a video recording in which he blamed all the military failures in Ukraine on Putin personally. He also went on to accuse Putin of causing all of Russia's economic and social ills, as he urged the military to rise...

Vladimir Putin's slow response to the incursion of Ukrainian forces into the border region of Kursk could ultimately leave him facing the wrath of his long-time enablers. Russia was caught unprepared by the offensive and reportedly is drafting conscripts to repel some of Ukraine's most battle-hardened units. Putin has a history of responding slowly to various crises in his tenure, and he has so far played down the attack. In his 24 years in power, Putin has portrayed himself as the only person who can guarantee Russia's security and stability but that image has suffered since the war began.

Russian troops have been seen taped to trees and beaten by furious commanders as punishment for being drunk on the frontllines of Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine, new footage has revealed. Footage posted online showed the troops being tied to trees in an unknown forest near the front. A foul-mouthed officer berates the soldiers for getting drunk on duty, a major problem in Putin's ranks. He barked: 'What the f*** were you doing?' He told one: 'I think you're f***ing lost.' The officer then asked another: 'Are you a drunk too?' Then he orders an underling to beat the...

Rumours of Vladimir Putin body doubles have been circulating for a while and now speculation is rife about the Russian president again. Putin visited Baku, Azerbaijan, between August 18 and 19 to discuss Armenian settlement with the President of Azerbaijan. But some people have noticed there is a problem with Putin’s face in comparison to a meeting he held with the Russian security council just a few days prior. This includes Anton Herashchenko, a former advisor to Ukraine’s government, who is convinced Putin appeared as a body double in Baku. He posted: ‘Putin in Baku looks different from Putin at...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has destroyed a key bridge in Russia's Kursk region and struck a second one nearby, less than two weeks into its stunning cross-border incursion, disrupting Russian supply routes and possibly signaling that its troops are planning to dig in. Russia’s pro-Kremlin military bloggers have acknowledged that the destruction of the first bridge, which spanned the Seim River near the town of Glushkovo, will impede deliveries of supplies to Russian forces repelling Ukraine’s incursion, although Moscow could still use pontoons and smaller bridges in the area. Ukraine’s air force chief, Lt. Mykola Oleshchuk, on Friday released...