Free Republic

Ukrainian forces have damaged an advanced Russian Su-57 jet hundreds of miles away from the front lines inside Moscow's internationally recognized territory, Kyiv's military spy agency said on Sunday, adding this is the "first such case in history." An Su-57 jet was struck on Saturday at the Akhtubinsk airfield, in the southern Russian republic of Astrakhan, Kyiv's GUR military intelligence agency said in a statement. The site is around 365 miles from the current front lines in eastern Ukraine, according to the GUR. One of Russia's influential military bloggers—often considered sources for information on losses in lieu of official commentary...

A former commander of Russian forces in Ukraine has likely returned to the war-torn country as "intense tensions" develop among Russia's top military figures, according to a new assessment. General Colonel Mikhail Teplinsky, who served as the commander of Russia's VDV, the airborne forces branch of the Russian military, was removed from Moscow's operations in Ukraine in January 2023, which Western analysts noted at the time.

As its Black Sea fleet flagship, the Moskva, reached the depths of the seabed in mid-April 2022, Russia insisted Ukraine had nothing to do with the sinking of the 510-crew guided missile cruiser. Russian state media provided various explanations for the sinking of the prominent flagship—none of which included a deliberate Ukrainian strike. Russia's Defense Ministry said a "fire" followed by a "munitions blast" had inflicted "serious damage" on the cruiser, prompting a crew evacuation. "The explosions of ammunition have been stopped," the ministry then said, according to state media, which claimed the ship was still afloat and being taken...