Free Republic

For Ukraine’s Independence Day celebration, Volodymyr Zelensky brought some real fireworks right to the heart of Russia’s occupation. Officials in Kyiv announced this morning that they have landed forces on the western shores of Crimea, raised the Ukranian flag, and have engaged and destroyed Russian forces near two settlements.No word yet from Russia, but this would be bad news indeed for Vladimir Putin if this beachhead succeeds. If it is a beachhead, that is:Special forces landed on the western shore of Crimea, near the settlements of Olenivka and Mayak, in a joint operation with the country’s Navy, according to Ukrainian...

CNN highlighted this video yesterday which comes from a Ukrainian journalist. They haven’t independently confirmed the contents but the video appears to shows Russian soldiers who are near the front lines complaining about the complete lack of supplies and training. “The sent us here without any training, without anything at all,” the soldier said. He added, “We don’t have any training or supplies and our guys showed up in their own uniforms paid for with their own money.” A second soldier said, “We have no weapons, no ammo bags, no grenades, no belt pouches, no food, no water. It’s absolute...

We all know how this has played out. This summer Russia started monkeying with the natural gas supply to Germany and the rest of Europe, claiming there was some technical problem that required maintenance. Then they cut the gas off completely and not long after that someone blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. The result of all this has been a huge spike in energy prices in Europe and concern that there might not be enough gas to heat homes this winter.But here we are in late October and the situation is looking very different. For one thing, Europe has...

A report published yesterday which documents the routine use of torture in Izium, a small city in eastern Ukraine which was recently recaptured after months of Russian occupation. The Associated Press sent reporters to the city and spoke with residents who identified 10 locations which had been used by Russians to torture both Ukrainian military personnel and civilians.(snip)Russian torture in Izium was arbitrary, widespread and absolutely routine for both civilians and soldiers throughout the city, an Associated Press investigation has found.(snip) Based on accounts of survivors and police, AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town and gained access...

How well have the people of the four annexed territories in Ukraine embraced their new overlords in Moscow? Vladimir Putin offered some insight into that question today by declaring martial law in all four areas, starting tomorrow. The Duma followed up his declaration with legislation that will silence any dissent and criminalize any travel and public gatherings not expressly approved by military commanders. It’s “liberation, Kremlin style,” comrade!(snip) The glorious war progresses smoothly, tovarisch. Don’t forget that Putin’s argument for annexation was that these areas rightly belonged to Russia in the first place. If that’s the case, why do these...

Putin’s partial mobilization continues to look like a disaster. There are reports that some of the new recruits are being sent to the front lines in Ukraine with little or no training or equipment. Mobilized soldiers and their families provide their own equipment and even medical supplies before they ship out.A half-dozen Russian soldiers talk about being shipped to an area of intense fighting in eastern Ukraine just 11 days after their mobilization. Asked about his shooting practice, a bearded conscript says, “Once. Three magazines.”…Elsewhere, scores of relatives of freshly drafted Russian soldiers crowd outside a training center, passing items...

Even the solutions turn into problems for Vladimir Putin in Ukraine — big problems. Less than a month after announcing a “partial” mobilization, Russian conscripts have entered into combat in Luhansk. And it appears that they are exiting almost as quickly, provoking even more backlash from nationalist milbloggers who are increasingly balking at Putin’s propaganda. The Ukrainians reported their arrival in combat areas yesterday. Serhii Haidai, the top military official in Luhansk Oblast, claimed that the first conscript wave consisted mainly of ex-convicts: (snip) The Russian milbloggers didn’t take long to confirm the arrival of conscripts — and to complain...

Despite all of his public bluster, is it possible that Vladimir Putin is getting just a bit desperate in his bid to find some sort of path to something he could call a “victory” in Ukraine? One hint could be found in the fact that he twisted Lukashenko’s arm to pull Belarus into the fighting at this late stage of the game. But another indicator of Russia’s military reaching the bottom of the barrel popped up this week. Yesterday, Tyler Rogoway from The War Zone sent out this alert on social media. It seems that Russia is “modernizing” some of...

I read Jazz Shaw’s story this morning about Jeffrey Sachs saying it’s likely the US blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. That’s the line being taken by Tucker Carlson as well. And while I agree there’s no definitive proof either way, at least not anything that has been declassified yet, I think it’s still probable that Russia is responsible.Russia had already cut off the supply of gas through Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 was never operational. So there was no real change in the amount of gas going through the pipeline (or the revenue it produced) before or...

A sense of unreality continues to permeate Russia and their claims to annexation of southern Ukraine, and that may be almost literally. Newsweek reports today that the Kremlin added “fake cheers” to Vladimir Putin’s speech on Friday announcing the annexation to sell this glorious nonsense to a Russian audience that has clearly grown tired of the war. And speaking of the audience … Unedited footage from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annexation speech in Moscow on Friday appears to show fake cheers were edited onto clips broadcast on state TV, while reports say that people were bussed in to attend the...

And can Vladimir Putin survive without them? The Kremlin has relied on manipulated narratives of Russian success in Ukraine — as well as outrageous propaganda against Ukrainians and the West — sourced mainly through milbloggers and nationalist front-line reporters. Those have fed Putin’s state-run media since the start of the war, especially after Putin outlawed any true independent reporting in February. Now that Russian troops are running from Kharkiv and getting overrun in key strategic locations like Lyman and Kherson, the milbloggers have turned on their masters. ISW reports today that “dramatic changes in the Russian information space” took place...

The NY Times published this report today. The intercepts in question aren’t recent but come from back in March (snip) Still, the content of the calls reveal just how quickly the Russian offensive fell apart. A soldier named Sergey told his mother, “No one told us we were going to war. They told us the day before we left.” Another soldier told his partner, “I didn’t know this was going to happen. They said we were going for training. These bastards didn’t tell us anything.” The soldier’s take on the attempt to take Kyiv was just as blunt. “We can’t...

You see, this is why I prefer Catholicism. All we need is confession. Russia’s establishment has grown desperate enough in Ukraine to reach for the martyrdom argument. Patriarch Kirill, a Vladimir Putin crony, declared that Russian men who die for “Holy Russia” by participating in its genocide in Ukraine will have their sins “washed away”: (snip) If that sounds positively medieval, it is, literally. It’s the same indulgence granted during the Crusades. This is the kind of martyrdom teachings one no longer finds in Christianity but still find in radical forms of Islam and extremist political ideologies. In those ideologies,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is promising three protections to Russian soldiers who willingly surrender. Zelensky’s offer comes as Vladimir Putin announced plans to call up 300,000 reservists to replenish the troops who have died in battle. Zelensky delivered his offer directly to Russians as he made his nightly video address.Zelensky addressed them in Russian. He said every Russian soldier who surrenders is guaranteed three protections.1. You will be treated in a civilised manner, in accordance with all conventions; 2. No one will know the circumstances of your surrender, no one in Russia will know that your surrender was voluntary; 3....