Free Republic

Russian-installed officials in occupied regions of Ukraine reported huge majorities on Tuesday in favour of becoming part of Russia after five days of voting in so-called referendums that Kyiv and the West denounced as a sham. Hastily arranged votes had taken place in four areas - the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and to the south Zaporizhzhia and Kherson - that make up about 15% of Ukrainian territory. Luhansk authorities said 98.4% of people there had voted to join Russia. In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian-appointed official put the figure at 93.1%. In Kherson, the head of the voting committee put...

Russia is reportedly buying millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea to shore up its arsenal in its ongoing war with Ukraine. The New York Times reported on Monday, citing newly declassified U.S. intelligence, which lacked detail on the type of North Korean weaponry being sent to Russia, as well as the scale and timing of their shipment. The Times quoted a Washington official as saying that Moscow was expected to seek additional purchases of military equipment from Pyongyang in the future. Other global media outlets also issued similar reports, with the Associated Press citing a U.S. official...

The Kremlin has issued its sharpest comments about cutting off Russia's natural-gas flow to Europe via the key Nord Stream 1 pipeline on Monday, saying supplies wwould not resume until the "collective West" lifts sanctions against Moscow. "Problems with gas supply arose because of the sanctions imposed on our country by Western states, including Germany and Britain," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov during a conference call, Reuters reported on Monday. "We see incessant attempts to shift responsibility and blame onto us. We categorically reject this and insist that the collective West – in this case, the EU, Canada, the UK...

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is the bookmakers' favorite to become the next prime minister of the United Kingdom, but the Kremlin is unlikely to be betting on a different British approach to relations with Moscow, or the war in Ukraine, should she take over from incumbent Boris Johnson. Although enjoying less support among fellow Conservative Party MPs, Truss's greater popularity among grassroots Tories than Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the final run-off has seen Betfair put her odds-on 4/6 to win. If successful, she will be the face of the British response to the war in Ukraine during which she...

After the first Ukrainian attempt to push towards had failed it is now reinforcing that failure. As I describe the move: The only 'successful' attack was across the Inhulet river near Andriivka in the direction of the dam and river crossing that closes off the Kakhovka Dnieper reservoir. The troops were cut off and mostly destroyed. On the western side of the salient a Russian unit crossed the Inhulet towards north and attacked the Ukrainians on that side. It soon had to pull back and the Ukrainians used the Russian crossing to reconnect with the cut off units in the...

A representative of the Moscow-installed military administration in the occupied parts of Ukraine's Kherson region says a referendum on joining Russia has been postponed as Ukrainian armed forces continue military operations aimed at regaining control over the area. "We have prepared for the voting, and we wanted to hold the referendum in the nearest future, but due to the developments happening at the moment, I think we will pause [with the referendum]," the Russian-appointed deputy governor of Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, told the TASS news agency on September 5. Kherson, an important port city on the Black Sea, has been fully...

BRUSSELS (AP) – Weapons stocks in the European Union are running low as member countries continue to sends arms and ammunition to Ukraine, the bloc’s top diplomat warned Monday as he urged EU nations to better coordinate their spending on military materiel. “The military stocks of most member-states has been, I wouldn’t say exhausted, but depleted in a high proportion, because we have been providing a lot of capacity to the Ukrainians,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a debate with European lawmakers.

Ukraine’s First Lady’s message to Britons facing crippling energy bill hikes and a cost of living crisis is that while they might be “counting pennies”, her county is counting casualties. “There is no comparison to the suffering of people here, but at home in the United Kingdom, as you acknowledge, people are facing very painful choices because of the soaring cost of energy that’s going to make things very tough for people,” said BBC presenter Laura Kuenssberg in an interview with President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska.

Is there an amount of military aid for Ukraine the U.S. won’t approve? Within the past two weeks alone, the Biden administration has committed nearly $4 billion in security assistance by allocating $3 billion and $775 million in separate packages. The grand total of military aid delivered to Ukraine since President Biden took office in January 2021 is a whopping $13.5 billion, and that number is only set to increase. What is particularly pernicious about the weapons gravy train is the lack of a clear endgame in the conflict itself, an ugly feature of U.S. engagement in proxy wars. When...

The German government will support the Ukrainian war effort for “as long as they need us” and no matter what public opinion of voters is on the issue, Germany’s foreign minister said on Wednesday. Appearing at the Forum 2000 conference in Prague, Annalena Baerbock of the Green Party, Minister of Foreign Affairs in the ‘traffic light’ coalition government of Olaf Scholz, said that Germany will press on with supporting Ukraine’s struggle supporting sanctions against Russia for years if necessary.

Regular session of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church was held in Moscow on August 25, presided by Patriarch Kirill. "We are meeting at a time when, as you know, all is not quiet in the expanses of Holy Russia. Many people are suffering today, really suffering, but this suffering did not begin now, as some claim, but has continued for the past eight years," said the Patriarch Kirill in his opening address. - A great many people in Donbass have indeed been subjected to tremendous distress. And wherever justice is violated, there is always resistance to injustice, and...

"The war in Ukraine is in its sixth month, and there’s no end in sight. Here’s what we know… Almost everything you heard about the war in Ukraine from U.S. media over the course of March, April and May was a lie. **** It’s not that I’m pro-Russian — I’m not. I’m pro-truth. And I don’t defend the Russian invasion in any way (although I do understand it). Even Bloomberg and The New York Times are now starting to admit that the war is a lost cause for Ukraine and the U.S. economy is suffering from sanctions aimed at Russia....

CNN's Wolf Blitzer presses Saudi diplomat Adel al-Jubeir, who was in the room during President Joe Biden's meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Video at source.

Throughout his 20-plus year rule, Vladimir Putin has consolidated power through graft, intimidation, manipulation of the Russian legal system, and forcefully silencing critics. Putin’s ability to sustain subservience and loyalty to his authority is no small feat, especially in a political culture of ruthless power politics. His reputation as a master tactician abroad has also been carefully cultivated, if not exaggerated.

President Joe Biden’s administration is supporting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to ship natural gas pipeline equipment to Germany, which will lead to the European economic hub importing more Russian natural gas. State Department spokesman Ned Price expressed Washington’s support for the move in a statement Monday. Trudeau’s government plans to ship the equipment for the Nord Stream 1 pipeline back to Germany after it had been kept in Montreal due to sanctions on Russian gas, according to Bloomberg. The decision is aimed at preventing serious economic turmoil in Germany due to high energy prices.

As Ukraine continues to lose ground in the east, its leaders are inexplicably demanding three-quarters of a trillion dollars to "reconstruct" areas controlled by Russia. Once widely considered the most corrupt country in Europe, Western leaders have already dumped in billions with zero oversight. Will they keep writing checks? Podcast ...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) returned from a visit to Turkey over the weekend saying he will do everything in his power to close a sale of F-16 fighter jets to Ankara. President Biden signalled his support for the weaponry sale to Turkey in a statement on Thursday, expressing optimism that Congress will pass this measure. Biden had met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan the day prior, but shut down the notion that the proposed deal was a “quid pro quo” for Turkey supporting Finland and Sweden’s applications to join the NATO military alliance. In a Twitter thread on Sunday,...

Kyiv Pride was never supposed to be held outside of Ukraine's capital, but among the rainbow flags at Warsaw Pride in neighboring Poland, Ukraine's ubiquitous blue and yellow stood out. "I'm here because I can't go to Pride in Ukraine," one participant said. "We're all people regardless of who you love." Central Europe's biggest Pride march kept a focus on Ukraine's fight against Russia, as well as its LGBTQ+ community's fight for equal rights. ...

During a briefing, the head of the press center of the security and defense forces of the operational command of the South, Nataliya Gumenyuk, said that only the military can comment on the advance of the Ukrainian troops. “Any analysts, deputies, other political or just active figures at the moment only do harm with such statements…” Gumenyuk said. “Firstly, it does not correspond to reality, and secondly, it disorients our people, the local population. It harms not only the military operation, but the image of those who say such things.” Earlier, the UK weekly newspaper The Economist reported, citing a...

The war in Ukraine risks turning into a protracted conflict that Russia will eventually win, a leading think-tank has said.The report by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) warned that current Russian advantages and Ukrainian weaknesses are leading to a style of conflict that favours Moscow.The capture of the city means that Russia has essentially gained control of the entire Luhansk region, marking Russia's biggest victory since it captured the southern port of Mariupol in late May.Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrlo Budnov said his defence forces had withdrawn "to advantageous positions in order to gain tactical superiority" after the Russians...