Free Republic

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Cash-strapped Ukraine has secured a crucial European Union loan that will provide a vital lifeline to sustain its wartime efforts this year.The 90 billion-euro ($106 billion) package was formally approved on Thursday, days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline had been repaired and the flow of oil would resume to Slovakia and Hungary, conditions linked to the release of the funds.Approval had been held up for months amid political friction inside the 27-nation EU, including resistance from outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, widely seen as the Kremlin’s...

The U.S. military, which has been responding to Iran’s loitering drone attacks, has finally adopted Ukraine’s air defense technology. As low-cost drones continued to damage high-value military assets, it is interpreted that the U.S. has deployed Ukraine’s combat-proven response system at key Middle Eastern bases. On the 22nd, Reuters reported, citing multiple sources, that the U.S. has deployed Ukraine’s command and control platform at Prince Sultan Airbase in Saudi Arabia, a key military asset in the Middle East, to defend against Iranian drones.… Ukrainian military officers are reported to have visited the base over recent weeks to train U.S. forces...

Since Ukraine’s population has shrunk dramatically, the army’s number one problem is no longer the lack of weapons, such as ballistic missiles and air defense systems, but the lack of soldiers to operate them, writes Világgazdaság. The competent authorities in Kyiv, however, must bring the army size required by Commander-in-Chief Zelensky (800,000 active soldiers), and since the number of men eligible for military service (between the ages of 18 and 60) is slowly running out, the Ukrainian leadership is now trying to fill the gaps by conscripting women. As of early 2024, approximately 5 million men are considered to be...