Free Republic

The Russian invasion of Ukraine recently passed the one-year mark and I fear the country is on the verge of losing to Russia. As someone who has visited Ukraine multiple times on humanitarian missions, my last trip convinced me that the country is at a pivotal moment. Morale is slipping. I could see it in the eyes of the children. More importantly, I could hear it in the voices of their leaders, who continue to say all the right things but lack the same conviction as before. …… While the Russian invasion of Ukraine is just a year old, the...

Five years ago, Ukraine’s Maidan uprising ousted President Viktor Yanukovych, to the cheers and support of the West. Politicians and analysts in the United States and Europe not only celebrated the uprising as a triumph of democracy, but denied reports of Maidan’s ultranationalism, smearing those who warned about the dark side of the uprising as Moscow puppets and useful idiots. Freedom was on the march in Ukraine. Today, increasing reports of far-right violence, ultranationalism, and erosion of basic freedoms are giving the lie to the West’s initial euphoria. There are neo-Nazi pogroms against the Roma, rampant attacks on feminists and...

While Western media deploys Volodymyr Zelensky’s Jewish heritage to refute accusations of Nazi influence in Ukraine, the president has ceded to neo-Nazi forces and now depends on them as front line fighters. Back in October 2019, as the war in eastern Ukraine dragged on, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Zolote, a town situated firmly in the “gray zone” of Donbas, where over 14,000 had been killed, mostly on the pro-Russian side. There, the president encountered the hardened veterans of extreme right paramilitary units keeping up the fight against separatists just a few miles away. Elected on a platform of...

<p>A popular Russian newscaster has reportedly caused a stir following a live newscast in which she apparently gave President Obama the middle finger.</p> <p>The Telegraph reports that online footage of the incident, which occurred earlier this month during an afternoon broadcast on the privately-held REN TV channel, is being "avidly viewed" in both Russia and the United States.</p>