Free Republic

Russia is preparing to evacuate senior officers in the Federal Security Service (FSB) and their families from occupied areas of Ukraine, Kyiv on Wednesday claimed. According to the National Resistance Center (NRC), which is a civilian resistance office launched by the Ukrainian government following Russia’s invasion, senior Russian officers in the FSB have been "informed about the evacuation routes." The NRC said officials in all five occupied regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea – have been notified of evacuation plans.

"More and more brazen attacks are being launched against Russia and Washington is doing little to hide US fingerprints. Why? The Biden Administration seems to be moving us closer to nuclear war over Ukraine and Biden himself seems to know it. Last week he said, Putin “is not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons…” For the “first time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat of the use [of nuclear weapons] if in fact things continue down the path they are going.” So the question is if...

Retired Admiral Mike Mullen is advising the Biden administration to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine as World War 3 becomes a real possibility. Mullen, who was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, is saying that Biden should back off on the reckless talk and get to working on diplomacy.

One day after warning Russian President Vladimir Putin he would face "severe" economic sanctions, "like ones he's never seen," should Russia invade Ukraine, resident Joe Biden assured Americans that sending U.S. combat troops to Ukraine is "not on the table." America is not going to fight Russia over Ukraine. "The idea that the United States is going to unilaterally use force to confront Russia invading Ukraine is not in the cards," said Biden. "We have a moral obligation and a legal obligation to our NATO allies," but "that obligation does not extend to ... Ukraine." Anti-interventionists who have opposed bringing...

The horrifying attacks on Ukraine yesterday– are a sign that the Russian president is, if not yet desperate, getting nearer to it. They represent a highly significant psychological shift for the beleaguered leader. He is no longer trying to win the war: now he is simply trying not to visibly lose it. Previously he could have defined victory however he wanted. But by annexing Ukrainian regions, he has upped the already high stakes. If he cedes so-called ‘Russian’ territory, he will become the Tsar who gave away Russian land instead of the strongman who restored the empire. And by ordering...

Maybe Grandpa Joe Should Stop Rambling About Nuclear WarOkay, this one requires a couple of soundbites to set the stage. The first is from 10 years ago this month...“Governor Romney… a few months ago, when you were asked what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia. Not Al-Qaeda. You said Russia. And the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”How’s that one workin’ out, Barry?...“No one [deals unfairly or harshly] with a Biden.”Okay? Get those two ideas squared firmly in your mind: 1) Russia is not a problem because the Democrats are in charge,...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President Joe Biden’s remarks warning of “armageddon” amid nuclear threats from Russia were “right.” At a fundraiser last week, Biden said, “We have not faced the prospect of armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.” Discussing Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden added, “I know fairly well. He’s not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons.”

The impact of the use of a nuclear device in Ukraine will depend on the details. Like any large-scale industrial army, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have obvious pressure points that would be vulnerable to nuclear attack. These include logistical centers, command and communications nodes, and concentrations of front-line forces. During the Cold War the Soviet Union expected to use tactical nuclear weapons against NATO (and expected that NATO would use them in return) and it is therefore likely that the Russian armed forces have workable theories as to how they might best use tactical nukes to inflict damage on Ukraine’s...

The Ukrainians’ bodies lay side-by-side on the grass, the earth beside them splayed open by a crater. Dragged to the spot by Russian mercenaries, the victims’ arms pointed to where they had died. “Let’s plant a grenade on them,” a voice says in husky Russian, in what appears to be a plan to booby-trap the bodies. “There is no need for a grenade, we will just bash them in,” another says of the Ukrainian soldiers who will come to collect the bodies. The mercenaries then realize they have run out of ammunition. (snip) Wagner’s struggles in Ukraine have set in...

Former national security adviser John Bolton thinks President Biden "overstated the gravity of the situation we're in right now" when he suggested that the "prospect of Armageddon" is the highest it's been since the Cuban Missile Crisis. Bolton offered his observation in an interview Friday with CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge. .... Bolton said nuclear threats must be taken seriously, but he doesn't think the world is in quite the situation the president described. .... "Well, you know, [Putin's the the center of command and control of the Russian military," Bolton said. "National Command authority is what we...

More than 15,000 randy Ukrainians are literally planning to go out with a bang in the event of a nuclear attack on their country.That is the number of people who have signed up to an online invitation on the Telegram messaging service to join in an orgy on a hill outside Kyiv if Vladimir Putin reaches for the red button.The mass sex party would take place at Shchekavystsa and those attending would be invited to decorate their hands with stripes to denote their carnal preferences – three stripes would be for anal sex enthusiasts and four stripes for oral sex...

Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin has a very simple solution to ending Putin’s war in Ukraine. When asked about an off-ramp for Putin, she replied, “The way out of the conflict is for Russia to leave Ukraine. That’s the way out of the conflict.” What more do you need to know?

Putin’s tactical mistake – Riddle RussiaRussia’s invasion of Ukraine has fundamentally changed global politics, and there is little doubt that the most dramatic events are yet to come: Russia’s defeat and its decline as a superpower (even if a regional one) will have lasting consequences. However, similar statements about the global economy, if made at all, sound less confident: sanctions against Russia have not destroyed the global financial order, the hundreds of Western companies which escaped from Russia have not seen their position in other markets decline, and the only area where Moscow really had something to say, namely commodity...

Vladimir Putin is a bad guy. Vladimir Putin is a megalomaniac. Vladimir Putin is a criminal. All of those things are true. Similarly, Adolph Hitler was a bad guy, a megalomaniac and a criminal. But Vladimir Putin is not Adolph Hitler and Russia in 2022 is not Germany in 1938/39. But in both cases, the future of the world hung on / hangs in the balance. But maybe not in the way you think… Much of the world was already engaged in war in 1941 when the United States joined the fight. Most of Europe and much of North Africa...

Col. Doug Macgregor on Nord Stream and Nuclear War

This year’s Peace Prize is awarded to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties Zelensky will be gutted. 😆t.co/qwr27Y5LzG — Tess Summers 🇬🇧🇮🇪 (@tesssummers98) October 7, 2022 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced at 11am local time on Friday in Oslo, Norway. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was on the 2022 TIME 100 list, is the bookmakers’ favorite to win

According to Yanushevich, Ukrainian strikes have completely decommissioned almost all the major bridges in the region - Antonivskyi (road and railway), as well as the Nova Kakhovka Dam Bridge. “As a result of these actions, the Russian army was cut off from the supply of weapons and personnel from the territory of Crimea and the left-bank part of Kherson Oblast,” Yanushevich explained. He also confirmed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have launched an offensive in all directions in southern Ukraine, but added that the authorities can only provide official information from the military. “We must remain calm and not...

What a difference a decade makes. There was a time when the United States would talk to Russia with at least the pretense of respect. Remember this exchange between then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama?That was then. Mr. Medvedev is singing quite a different tune now. He made this public statement yesterday:It is useless and unnecessary to appeal to the prudence of our enemies in the West, the enemies must be forced to ask for mercy in the lost economic battle and end it with their complete and unconditional surrenderI do not believe that Dimitry Medvedev was drunk...

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that NATO countries should launch preventive strikes against Russia to prevent Moscow from using nuclear weapons. “What should NATO do? Eliminate the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons ... Preemptive strikes, so that they know what will happen to them if they use it. And not vice versa - wait for Russian nuclear strikes, ”he said, speaking via video link at the Lowy Institute (Australia). The Kremlin has repeatedly noted that Russia can use nuclear weapons only in accordance with the provisions of its nuclear doctrine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the...

The presidential press office of Ukraine accused global media outlets of “nuclear hysteria” on Thursday for sharing remarks made by President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he asked the world for “preemptive strikes” on Russia to avoid nuclear war. Zelensky made the remarks during a question and answer session with the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank, on Thursday, asserting that NATO had a responsibility to “make it impossible for Russia to use nuclear weapons.