Free Republic

The former US Army General tapped to be Donald Trump's special envoy to Ukraine and Russia warned last week 'we're on the precipice of World War III' as he outlined a plan to end the war by forcing both sides to the negotiating table. Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, 80, told Fox News of the precarious geopolitical circumstances after Vladimir Putin launched a never-before-seen hypersonic missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. - snip- 'When you look at what's happening... with an alliance that President Trump kept apart. You know, he had North Korea over here, he had China over here,...

Ukraine has carried out its first strike on Russian territory with US-supplied long-range missiles just days after the Biden administration gave Kyiv the green light despite fears it could escalate the conflict beyond control. A fiery explosion at an ammunition depot in Karachev around 75 miles from the Ukrainian border in Russia's Bryansk region lit up the night sky early this morning on what is the 1,000th day of war in Ukraine. Eyewitnesses along with Russian and Ukrainian military bloggers first reported the attack, with anonymous Ukrainian military officials later telling RBC Ukraine the strike was conducted with the US-manufactured...

Donald Trump's dominant victory in this week's US presidential election has left politicians, captains of industry and military chiefs the world over scrambling to calibrate their approaches ahead of his return to office. -snip- A recent Wall Street Journal report citing three sources 'close to the president-elect' claimed that Trump's transition office is considering one proposal that would prevent Kyiv from joining NATO for at least 20 years in exchange for lucrative arms deals. In the meantime, the conflict would be halted by the implementation of a large demilitarised zone (DMZ) that would effectively freeze the fighting in place and...

A pair of soldiers can be heard bellyaching about the so-called 'K-battalion' Ukraine's intelligence services have released audio of what they claim to be Russian troops complaining about the arrival of North Korean fighters and squabbling about how they will be equipped. In one recording, a pair of soldiers can be heard bellyaching about the so-called 'K battalion', referring to them as 'f***ing Chinese' and declaring one of his fellow servicemen had said 'who knows what the f*** we're supposed to do with them'. Another clip obtained by Ukraine's Defence Intelligence (GUR) appeared to expose the lack of communication and...

Vladimir Putin is regretful over the war in Ukraine, according to the latest claim by one of his closest allies, as US defence officials warned North Korean troops will become 'legitimate targets' if they are seen to fight alongside Russian forces. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko delivered a wide-ranging interview with the BBC and state-owned broadcaster BelTA this week in which he was asked whether his Russian counterpart had regrets over launching his so-called 'special military operation' in Ukraine. -snip- 'Both sides suffer heavy losses... Does Putin regret it or not? Of course he regrets. He's a living man.' -snip- Ukraine's...

This is the moment a smug Vladimir Putin is taken down a peg by one of his top energy officials in a dispute during a tense discussion about Russia's Arctic infrastructure projects. Director General of Russia's state atomic energy corporation Rosatom Alexei Likhachev yesterday visited the Kremlin where he delivered a presentation about the company's performance and ongoing projects under Vladimir's steely gaze. After a lengthy speech in which he boasted of Rosatom's 24 per cent annual revenue growth and lauded the successes of the company's work to establish Russia as a major player in nuclear energy globally, the director...

Putin has appointed his ex-bodyguard, who is considered a likely successor for the Russian leader, as an 'angel of vengeance' tasked with trying to reclaim the territory seized by Ukraine. Former bodyguard Alexei Dyumin, who once single-handedly scared off a bear from the president's mountain residence, will lead the charge on 'Operation Revenge' to reclaim the 386 square miles of Russian soil now under Ukrainian control. Dyumin, 51, grew up in the Kursk region, where a state of emergency was implemented almost immediately after thousands of Kyiv's troops surged across the border and began seizing territory. Putin has now chosen...

Whether it could prove a tactical masterstroke MailOnline examines the invasion so far and assesses what may come next On Tuesday, August 6, around 1,000 brave Ukrainian soldiers supported by a few tanks launched what seemed like a reckless at best - and catastrophic at worst - incursion into Russia's Kursk region. Within 48 hours of the first reports of the border breach, Russia's stonefaced army chief Valery Gerasimov - who reportedly dismissed intelligence reports indicating a Ukrainian troop buildup along the border two weeks prior - declared the invasion had been stopped in its tracks. Now, one week later,...

A convoy of Ukrainian armoured vehicles carrying jubilant troops was captured trundling through Russia's Kursk region in a fresh humiliation for Vladimir Putin after Volodymyr Zelensky's forces launched a surprise assault earlier this week.Tanks, armoured personnel carriers, a UR-77 mine-clearing vehicle and other army equipment were seen surging through a rural area in footage taken by a Ukrainian mortar position and shared to Telegram this morning. Kyiv's forces stormed across the border on Tuesday morning, deploying around 1,000 troops and more than two dozen armoured vehicles and tanks in an unexpected assault on Russian soil, according to the Russian army.The...

Russia's war in Ukraine has revealed to the world in graphic detail the smorgasbord of lethal technologies that can be used to destroy one's enemy in a large-scale 21st-century clash. But despite all the capabilities of such cutting-edge military tech, Moscow's primary frontline tactic appears ripped from the playbook of World War I generals - batter Ukrainians with artillery before dispatching waves of soldiers to secure territory inch by blood-soaked inch. It's a style of warfare reminiscent of the Battle of Passchendaele - but it has proved nonetheless effective with Vladimir Putin's forces gaining territory hand over fist in eastern...

A vaunted 'new era' of strategic partnership between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Xi Jinping may not exactly have been sealed with a kiss, but it did lead to rare hugs between them. Underscoring the importance of Xi's support for the Kremlin, Putin headed to Beijing earlier this week in what was his first trip abroad since his March re-election and the second in just over six months to China. Russia, grappling with Western sanctions after its invasion of Ukraine, is increasingly reliant on its booming trade with China, which is challenging US supremacy in areas from quantum...

Russian citizens were forced to cast their votes in presidential elections from their beds today as polling officials set out to garner a high turnout for incumbent president Vladimir Putin. Dystopian images emerged of an elderly, bed-ridden man looking over his shoulder as a stern-faced woman presumed to be his wife thrusts their voting cards into an empty ballot box held by an election official. -snip- Running effectively unchallenged, the 71-year-old Kremlin chief is almost certain to secure another six-year term with any legitimate political opponents in jail, in exile or in the ground after his fiercest of opponents, Alexei...

Extraordinary new footage has revealed the sheer terror faced by Russian sailors aboard a large landing ship sunk by Ukrainian kamikaze sea drones last month. A GoPro video, taken by sailors aboard the doomed Caesar Kunikov military vessel, showed in shocking detail how the navy men desperately tried to fight off the oncoming drones in an intense 20-minute sea battle before their vessel was destroyed in a fiery explosion. The warship was lost on February 14, but the footage has only just been released by Russian Telegram channel FighterBomber. The hellish, chaotic scene saw a small group of seamen unloading...

Russia's parliament is considering new legislation which would give the state the power to seize the property of people convicted for defamation of the armed forces or for calling publicly for actions that undermine state security. -snip- The move has drawn comparisons with the witch hunts of the 1930s under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin with their 'enemy of the state' rhetoric, and could affect thousands of Russians who have spoken out against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. The speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has dubbed the new bill...

The devastating efficacy of the US Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) has been revealed in heart-pounding new footage from the frontlines of Ukraine. An incredible clip shared by Ukraine's 109th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade showed how the expertly piloted Bradley saved a troop of Kyiv's soldiers from certain death, reducing three Russian BMP-2 armoured vehicles to smouldering wrecks. The unit was defending the village of Stepove in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region when a group of Russian armour descended on their location, ready to rain down cannon fire on the Ukrainian positions. Footage showed a trio of BMPs motoring towards the...

Vladimir Putin was caught off guard today during his marathon end of year press conference when he looked up to the big screen expecting to see a Russian citizen phoning in - and instead came face to face with an AI deepfake of himself. A student from Saint Petersburg State University had constructed the visual and audio likeness of the Russian President, and took the opportunity to ask the real Putin to share his thoughts on the dangers of AI and if he uses body doubles. 'Vladimir Vladimirovich, hello... I would like to ask you, is it true that you...

An Israeli TV station has released new footage which it says appears to show rockets fired over a hospital in Gaza just moments before an explosion killed hundreds last night. It comes after Israel's military shared footage and analysis which they say shows they were not responsible for the horrifying blast at the Al-Ahli Hospital on Tuesday. A video clip from a livestream, aired by Israel's Channel 12 News, shows a salvo of rockets being launched before explosions rock an area claimed to be the medical centre.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin allegedly tried to call Putin en route to Moscow during his mutiny after 'realising he had gone too far' and that he did not have the support of the Russian army. At around mid-day on June 24, while Wagner soldiers were on their way to Moscow from Rostov-on-Don, Prigozhin allegedly attempted to contact the Kremlin directly. He 'tried to call Putin, but the president didn't want to speak with him', according to sources close to the Kremlin who spoke to media outlet Meduza. These sources also believe that Prigozhin likely realised he had 'gone too far'...

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has broken his silence after abandoning his armed uprising on Saturday evening, insisting that he marched on Moscow to stop the Kremlin taking control of his mercenary army and denying a plot to overthrow Vladimir Putin. Speaking in an 11-minute audio clip posted on Wagner-affiliated Telegram channels, Prigozhin claimed the armed uprising was a 'master class' on how Russia's assault on Kyiv should have looked. He said he only called off his group's surge for the Russian capital to avoid spilling Russian blood, adding that the uprising was intended to register a protest at the ineffectual...

Vladimir Putin has not openly criticised his long-suffering defence minister amid the war in Ukraine, but the Russian president appeared to make his feelings towards Sergei Shoigu very clear on a visit to a hospital for wounded soldiers. Putin and Shoigu yesterday visited the Vishnevsky Central Military Clinical Hospital in Moscow to greet several servicemen who sustained all manner of gruesome injuries amid the Kremlin chief's war in Ukraine. Upon their arrival at the medical facility, Putin quickly walked around the group, awkwardly shaking the hands - and in some cases bandaged stumps - of the medically discharged veterans, asking...