Free Republic

From the outside, this was shaping up as a strong year for wartime Ukraine. Ukrainian drones are burning Russia’s refineries and starving occupied Crimea of fuel. Moscow’s summer offensive has stalled on most parts of the front, and Ukraine is taking back territory. In Washington, a president who spent last year berating Kyiv has warmed to it again. But suddenly last week, President Volodymyr Zelensky dismantled what looked like a winning team — removing his popular defense minister, his prime minister and, late Tuesday, the acclaimed commander in chief of his armed forces. Zelensky, the comedian turned president who has...

The flow of natural gas from Russia to Europe was suspended Wednesday after Ukraine said it would not renew a deal allowing Russian gas to transit its territory, ending an energy supply route that dates back some 60 years.In a statement posted to Telegram, Russian energy company Gazprom said it was no longer sending gas because of the expiration of the agreement Wednesday.“Due to the repeated and explicit refusal of the Ukrainian side to extend these agreements, Gazprom was deprived of the technical and legal ability to supply gas for transit through the territory of Ukraine from January 1, 2025....

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday made an unexpected visit to troops defending Bakhmut, currently the site of some of the bloodiest fighting in the war, as his forces try to hold off a desperate Russian assault on the city in the eastern Donetsk region. Zelensky’s trip, which was confirmed by his office on his Facebook page, highlighted the carnage in Bakhmut, where Russian forces, including mercenaries, have been pushing for months to claim a battlefield victory after a string of defeats and retreats in the south and east of Ukraine. It was not immediately clear where in Bakhmut the...