Free Republic

Just before 11 a.m. Moscow Standard Time on March 1, after a night of Russian strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, a set of Russian-language Twitter accounts spread a lie that Ukraine was fabricating civilian casualties. (snip) Late last month, the network of accounts shifted to focus almost exclusively on Ukraine, echoing similar narratives and content across accounts and platforms. A popular post by the account @QR_Kod accused the Ukrainian military of using civilians as human shields. Another post by @QR_Kod portrayed Ukraine as provoking Russia at the behest of its NATO masters. Both tweets received hundreds of likes...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced trip to Ukraine Thursday -- paying his second visit to the country's capital city since the war with Russia began more than six months ago. The top US diplomat will meet with Ukrainian officials. His trip comes as Ukraine has launched a counteroffensives aimed at reclaiming Russian occupied areas in the south and northeast of the country. It also coincides with a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, hosted by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unscheduled visit to Kyiv on Thursday as the Biden administration announced major new military aid worth more than $2 billion for Ukraine and other European countries threatened by Russia. In meetings with senior Ukrainian officials, Blinken said the Biden administration had notified Congress of its intent to provide $2 billion in long-term Foreign Military Financing to Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including NATO members and regional security partners, that are “most potentially at risk for future Russian aggression.” Pending expected congressional approval, about $1 billion of that will go to Ukraine...

Heavy fighting erupted in areas near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine after Kyiv warned it might have to shut down the plant to avoid a radiation disaster. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its daily update on Thursday that some villages near the plant were bombed over the past 24 hours by “tanks, mortars, barrel and jet artillery”. Overnight, Russian forces fired rockets and heavy artillery into the nearby town of Nikopol four times, the area’s regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, wrote on Telegram, damaging at least 11 houses and other buildings. On Wednesday,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has hailed "good news" from the northeastern Kharkiv region, after an apparent surprise counter-offensive forced Russian troops onto the back foot and prompted a pro-Kremlin official to call for evacuations. The Russian-installed head of the Kupiansk city administration, Vitaly Ganchev, urged women and children to evacuate the city as Ukrainian forces approached. Ganchev said the city, which lies west of the Donbas region and about 70 miles east of the city of Kharkiv, "is constantly under terror" and experiencing "constant rocket attacks from the Armed Forces of Ukraine." Ukrainian officials have declined to comment on the...