Free Republic

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes Ukraine may not endure the upcoming winter, and is therefore unlikely to return to the negotiating table before at least mid-March, according to the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, Serhii Kyslytsya. Kyslytsya made the remarks in an interview with Ukrinform on Thursday, Aug. 20, telling the news outlet that Moscow currently lacks motivation to enter negotiations and could see winter as an opportunity to weaken Ukrainian society. His comments came as Ukraine increasingly continues preparations across all sectors, particularly its air defenses, critical energy and water infrastructure, as well as residents for the...

Videos on social media have shown angry drivers in Russia in bitter fights over gasoline as shortages caused by Ukraine’s strikes against oil facilities present an increasing headache for the Kremlin.Kremlin-backed media are reporting the extent of growing queues at the pump, including the newspaper Izvestia, which said gasoline was available at only 28 percent of gas stations, compared with 41 percent a week earlier. Reuters reported August 17 that fuel sales were restricted in at least 10 regions of Russia, that "Rosneft" set a limit of 30 liters per vehicle, "Tatneft" set a limit of 50 liters, and "Gazprom...

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s son, Conor Kennedy, has been named on Russia’s international wanted list for fighting alongside the enemy in the Ukraine war, according to reports. The Basmanny District Court of Moscow authorized the younger Kennedy’s “arrest in absentia,” accusing him of acting as a mercenary for the Ukrainian armed forces, Russian state outlet TASS reported last week. He faces seven to 10 years in prison if captured, according to the outlet.

Every August, the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Georgia is accompanied by familiar reflections about missed warning signs, intelligence failures, and a supposedly unexpected turning point in European security. The language has become so standardized that it obscures a far more uncomfortable reality. Georgia did not reveal a new Russia. It exposed a Russia that had been behaving consistently for nearly two decades while much of the West continued searching for evidence that Moscow had fundamentally changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Describing the failure to recognize this trajectory as a collection of mistakes understates what actually occurred....

State-owned VEB.RF (Vnesheconombank) has stated that Russia cannot win the economic confrontation with the West as long as Western countries continue to support Ukraine. According to him, the Russian economy is facing rising costs, falling investment, and technological lag, reports The Moscow Times. The bank's chief economist, Andrei Klepach, said during a session of the Nikitsky Club that sanctions and the Western blockade are increasing the costs of the Russian economy, and that Ukrainian strikes on ports, infrastructure, chemical plants, and oil refineries are causing ever-greater damage to Russia. Klepach stated that Russia is losing the technological and economic competition...

Ukraine has said it carried out overnight strikes deep inside Russia, hitting a major oil refinery and an airfield that houses Russian strategic aviation. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Engels airfield and the refinery, both in the Saratov region some 600km (373miles) from Ukraine's border, were hit. An oil depot was also struck in Kaluga region and a drone launch site in Bryansk. Russia said eight people were killed in the Ukrainian strikes, and 635 drones shot down or intercepted. It also reported yet another strike on a warehouse of Russia's biggest online retailer Wildberries. Meanwhile, Moscow said its forces...

U.S. President Donald Trump declined to provide Ukraine with 300 Patriot interceptor missiles that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had requested to defend the country against Russian attacks this winter, The Atlantic reported on July 30. Instead, on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump offered Kyiv a license to produce its own interceptors domestically — though large-scale production could reportedly take years. The Atlantic's report did not specify exactly when Zelenskyy made the request to Trump. According to an analysis by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the war in Iran has depleted U.S. Patriot interceptor...

The average life expectancy for a Russian soldier entering battle in Ukraine is 20 to 30 minutes, Central Intelligence Agency director John Ratcliffe said on Wednesday. Ratcliffe was speaking at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, where he attributed the deadly conditions to Ukraine's combat drones equipped with AI. "What I would say is, our intelligence is consistent with some of the open-source reporting you may have seen in Ukraine," Ratcliffe said. "So the average life expectancy of a Russian recruit, right now, arriving on the battlefield in Ukraine, is estimated to be between 20 and 30 minutes." "And that's...

Ukraine has carried out what it described as the first known fully robotic amphibious assault, using a naval drone to transport an armed ground robot into Russian-occupied territory. The operation was announced on Monday by Ukraine’s 123rd Separate Territorial Defense Brigade. According to the brigade, a naval drone was remotely guided across the Black Sea toward the Kinburn Spit, located at the end of Ukraine’s Kinburn Peninsula and directly west of Kherson. Once the maritime drone reached the coast, it deployed an uncrewed ground vehicle fitted with a mounted machine gun.

For four years, Russia has bet on outlasting Ukraine in a war of attrition. Now, as Kyiv’s drones inflict growing damage on both Russia’s army and oil industry, Moscow is finding out that time isn’t necessarily on its side. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion force is making ever-smaller gains at the front line, its losses exceed recruitment, and it is struggling to adapt to a Ukrainian drone campaign pounding its supply routes to its forward positions. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s stretched army hasn’t buckled as Russia hoped and is even pushing back the invaders in places with small counterattacks. Its increasingly capable...

Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) carried out a large-scale overnight strike on July 6, hitting 47 Russian military targets, including two fuel tankers transporting gasoline to temporarily occupied Crimea, two S-400 Triumf air defense launchers, an oil depot in Kerch, and a Nebo-U radar system. SBS Commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi on June 6 described the operation as one of the most significant recent strikes against Russian military infrastructure. According to Brovdi, among the most significant targets were two tankers from Russia's so-called shadow fleet operating in the Sea of Azov. The vessels were transporting fuel from the area of Taganrog...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched waves of missiles and drones targeting Kyiv overnight into Monday that killed at least seven people, authorities said, hours after Ukraine’s president warned that another large-scale attack was imminent.Another 24 were wounded, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration in a post on Telegram.A residential building in the Podilskyi district partially collapsed, he said. In the Darnytsia district, several multistory buildings were damaged and people were believed to be trapped under the rubble. “These are residential buildings. Places where people slept and lived their ordinary lives,” he said. The attack, which was...

Ukraine and Germany have formed a joint working group to discuss how to return Ukrainian men of military age who left the country illegally, according to Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Oleksiy Makeiev. As of late May, Germany hosted approximately 1.35 million Ukrainian refugees, including 356,000 men between the ages of 18 and 63. However, the specific mechanisms currently under discussion have not been disclosed. The development followed German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s April remarks that Berlin would limit the number of Ukrainian men seeking asylum and facilitate their return home during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Germany. The ambassador outlined broader...

Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has appealed to nearly 40 partner countries to urgently transfer Patriot missiles from their stockpiles in July in exchange for future deliveries already contracted for Ukraine, the Defense Ministry said on July 2. The appeal comes after Russia launched one of its largest-ever aerial assaults against Kyiv overnight on July 2, killing at least 22 people and overwhelming Ukraine's air defenses with dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles alongside hundreds of drones. According to the Defense Ministry, Ukraine has already signed contracts for hundreds of PAC-2 Patriot missiles with German support, but deliveries are not expected...

Ukrainian troops will receive cash bonuses for capturing or destroying enemy personnel under the first stage of a sweeping overhaul of the Defense Forces, the Ministry of Defense announced on June 29. The awards stem from the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution, which launched an experimental project introducing additional payments for combat results, according to the ministry. The ministry described the measure as part of the first stage of the Defense Forces’ transformation. It framed the payments as a way to reward front-line service members for confirmed action against enemy personnel. The ministry set two award levels: roughly $2,200 for taking...

More than two million Russian and Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded in the four years that Russia has been waging war against its neighbor, according to a new study, a bleak milestone as Russia’s assault grinds on. The study, published on Wednesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Russia has borne the heavier toll, with 1.4 million troops killed or wounded since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Of that total, 450,000 were killed, a number that is four times greater than U.S. fatalities in all wars combined since World War II. Ukrainian...

Keir Starmer has said the UK will be prepared for war with Russia as he unveiled a £15billion military spending boost for the next four years. Defence chiefs are racing to arm-up in readiness to defend against Russian attack, with new land, sea and air drones, stealth fighter-bomber jets and surveillance craft, a troop recruitment drive and deep-strike missiles. But the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan (Dip) leaves a headache for Prime Minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham as the small print revealed £4.7bn - almost a third of the cash - will need to be funded in the Budget. It is understood that...

Vladimir Putin has admitted Russia is facing fuel shortages as Ukraine steps up its long-range drone campaign, with repeated strikes setting oil refineries ablaze and forcing multiple regions to introduce unprecedented petrol rationing. Speaking to Russian state television late on Sunday, the Russian president acknowledged for the first time that Ukrainian attacks on energy infrastructure were affecting domestic fuel supplies. “Of course, they create problems, that’s obvious,” Putin said. “Right now we’re observing a certain shortage, but it’s not critical.” Putin said Moscow would seek to ease the shortages by boosting fuel imports, while redoubling efforts to protect refineries from...

Soot-choked “black rain" has fallen across multiple districts of Moscow after Ukraine launched its largest-ever drone assault against the Russian capital, scoring a direct hit on a vital energy facility. Close to 200 long-range strike drones targeted the metropolis early on Thursday, overwhelming local air defences and setting the strategic Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya ablaze. As thick columns of dark smoke billowed thousands of feet into the air, residents in the southeastern suburbs and surrounding towns, including Balashikha and Lyubertsy, reported a fine, oily drizzle that coated vehicles, streets, and clothing in a dark, toxic residue. The multi-directional aerial...

It is believed a Russian Frigate fired at a passing yacht in British waters in the English Channel on Tuesday, prompting the Ministry of Defence to launch an investigation. The UK Ministry of Defence confirmed they are investigating an incident in the English Channel after a British-flagged yacht reported the Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich had fired warning shots at it on Tuesday morning. The incident, if proven, would be the most direct confrontation by a foreign warship off the coast of Britain in many years. Royal Navy patrol boat HMS Mersey (foreground) escorts Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich and attending Russian...