Free Republic

The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia supplied targeting intelligence to Yemen's Houthi forces for attacks on Western ships in the Red Sea. Yemen’s Houthi terrorists used targeting data provided by Russia to attack Western ships in the Red Sea earlier this year, an exclusive Thursday Wall Street Journal report disclosed. According to the report, the Houthis used Russian satellite data to destabilize the region as the Israel-Hamas war expanded throughout the past year. A person familiar with the matter and two European defense officials reportedly told the WSJ this information. Furthermore, the data was passed through Islamic Revolutionary Guard...

The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) supplied to Ukraine by the US has been “completely ineffective” on the battlefield due to persistent Russian jamming. This is according to a classified Ukrainian weapons assessment seen by The Washington Post, exposing more flaws in some of America’s most sophisticated weapon systems. According to the report, Kyiv had to pause or scale back its use of some US-supplied weapons because of targeting issues caused by Moscow’s electronic warfare (EW) capabilities. One source said the HIMARS sometimes misses its target by more than 50 feet (15 meters). Apart from the Lockheed Martin missiles,...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine´s air defenses battled an overnight Russian aerial attack on the capital Kyiv for five hours, officials said Thursday, as missiles and drones again hammered the Ukrainian power grid. The Kyiv attack injured at least two people, Ukraine´s Emergency Service said. A kindergarten, a gas pipe and around 20 cars were damaged in the city, said the Kyiv Military Administration. In western Ukraine, the air force said, Russia fired three Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles – one of Russia´s most advanced weapons – “in the direction of” Starokostiantyniv, a city in the Khmelnytskyi region, on Thursday morning....

In the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday, a large flock of Ukrainian drones winged north from Ukraine all the way to Toropets, a town in western Russian that hosts the 107th Arsenal, a sprawling ammunition dump feeding the Russian force fighting in Ukraine, 300 miles to the south. The arsenal exploded with enough force to register as a small earthquake, draw the attention of NASA fire-spotting satellites and compel local authorities to order an evacuation of nearby residents. A lot of Russian munitions went up in flames. (snip) That so many of Russia’s best munitions were reportedly concentrated in a single...

Other Russian Telegram channels said the attack resulted in about 50 Russian casualties. Ukrainian forces have used the Washington-supplied HIMARS on several occasions throughout the war, including in its Donetsk and Luhansk regions which are largely occupied by Russian forces. The Kremlin has been pushing for the total capture of the two regions—which together comprise the Donbas—since Russia's initial invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014. HIMARS has allowed Ukraine to destroy Russia's most advanced anti-aircraft missile systems. Washington has supplied the Ukrainians with at least 39 HIMARS since the war began on February 24, 2022. In February, Serhiy Bratchuk, a...

"The return of Crimea to Ukraine is a requirement of international law." Erdoğan said in his video address that Turkey has always been opposed to Russia's annexation of Crimea. He decried the persecution of Crimea's ethnic Tatars since 2014. Erdoğan added: "Our sincere wish is for the war to end with a fair and lasting peace based on Ukraine's territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence." In October 2020, the Turkish leader said during a joint press briefing with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that his country would never recognize the annexation of Crimea. "We have and always will support Ukraine's sovereignty and...

Russia "started" the conflict in Ukraine and can end it "straight away”, Sir Keir Starmer has said after Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow would regard Western missiles being fired into Russia as a serious escalation of the war. The PM is in Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden on Friday, as allies of Kyiv discuss giving Ukraine permission to fire their missiles at targets inside Russia. Putin told Russian state television that this would “mean nothing other than the direct participation of Nato countries - the US and European countries - in the war in Ukraine.

The Russian army is currently focusing all its efforts on isolating the combat area in and around Pokrovsk. In particular, a few days ago the Russian Armed Forces took the western exits from the city under strict fire control, and now there are reports of serious damage to the bridge on the E-50 highway, which the Ukrainian army used to transfer cargo and personnel from the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region. As experts explain, it was along this overpass that the Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred personnel, equipment and ammunition to Pokrovsk.

Russian missile strike hits Ukrainian city of Poltava, killing at least 41 people and injuring 180 others According to available information, two ballistic missiles hit the area. They targeted an educational institution and a nearby hospital, partially destroying one of the telecommunications institute's buildings

Daria Korkh made a good show of a stiff upper lip as she prepared to abandon her home.“We don’t want to, but we’ve got to,” she said bluntly. “The shops and supermarkets are closing. Medical facilities are still open, but it’s only a matter of time before the gas and electricity go.“The shelling has become more frequent and now there are enemy drones in town. Today the first drone flew in. Everyone knew after they [the Russians] took Avdiivka that this could be expected. It’s not sudden.Ms Korkh, a practical 39-year-old who has no children but a host of rescue...

The Kremlin scrambled to evacuate residents from a border town Saturday, as Ukrainian troops quickly advanced toward a nuclear plant, four days after gaining a foothold in Russia’s southwestern Kursk region. On Friday, Ukraine knocked out an entire Russian reinforcement convoy, as fighters caught Russian troops off-guard. Video of the aftermath showing smoldering Russian trucks was shared online. Ukrainian soldiers continued to move further into Russia, reaching at least six miles into Russian territory, the deepest advance since Moscow invaded the neighboring nation in February 2022....

"The complete collapse of the entire railroad network in the country could happen in days," the channel said. "[Russian Railways] chiefs have been ordered to work to the point of exhaustion. Those who fail to cope are threatened with dismissal and 'execution.' This is the motivation." Russian Railways in 2023 reported that the number of trains suspended due to issues with its trains more than doubled to 42,600 amid a shortage of critical parts. This was due to "insufficient maintenance of the locomotive fleet," Kommersant reported in March. A Russian Railways spokesperson told Vedomosti in February that the issue "became...

Ukraine destroyed a Russian submarine in Crimea on Friday, Kyiv's military has said, appearing to mark the latest blow to the Black Sea Fleet based around the peninsula to the south of mainland Ukraine. Ukraine "successfully struck" Russia's Rostov-on-Don submarine in the southern Crimean port city of Sevastopol, Kyiv's military said on Saturday. Kyiv also targeted four launchers belonging to Moscow's advanced S-400 air-defense systems on the Crimean peninsula, Ukraine's general staff said... "As a result of the hit, the boat sank on the spot," Ukraine's armed forces said. It had an estimated cost of around $300 million, according to...

It should be highlighted that the head of the International Boxing Association, which disqualified Khalif in 2023 after she had been allowed to box against women at the highest level – not always victoriously — for half a decade, is a man named Umar Kremlev who was awarded the Medal For Merit to the Fatherland by the Putin government “for a great contribution to the development of physical culture and sport and diligent work in Russia.” On Thursday, the organization’s communications team put out this statement: “The IBA will never support any boxing bouts between the genders, as the organization...

Havrylyuk said that people were seen as expendable by Putin in his mission to conquer Ukraine, but economic issues and problems supplying its troops with ammunition and equipment could soon blunt its campaign. The ISW said that high casualties were part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's strategy to grind out a victory in Ukraine through a war of attrition. "The recent increase in reports of entire Russian units becoming combat ineffective due to losses highlights the tactics on which Russian forces are relying on to pursue Putin's theory of a slow, gradual, grinding victory in Ukraine," it said. Vladimir Putin...

At least 20 people have been killed and 50 injured following Russian missile attacks on cities across Ukraine, including one which struck the country's largest children's hospital in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian Internal Affairs Minister Igor Klymenko. Klymenko also said that Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, and Donetsk Oblast were hit by Russian strikes. "More than 40 missiles of various types" were used in the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). "Russian terrorists have once again launched a massive missile attack on Ukraine," he said, adding that "all services are engaged to rescue as many...

Recent reports suggest that Russia is considering providing the Houthi rebels in Yemen with advanced anti-ship ballistic cruise missiles, potentially exacerbating the strategic dilemma facing Western powers as they seek to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea and beyond.

In mid-2022, Gazprom restricted gas flows to Europe in what was seen as a move by Putin to get both leverage against Kyiv's allies ahead of the winter season and retaliate against Western sanctions and support of Ukraine. But the EU managed to find alternative long-term sources of gas imports and free itself from most Russian piped-gas imports ... Gazprom's revenue fell by 41 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2023, while sales profits dropped 71 percent and gas production by 25 percent... The report said the company's upstream gas-production base is now isolated because infrastructure connecting its main...

MOSCOW/LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to halt the war in Ukraine with a negotiated ceasefire that recognises the current battlefield lines, four Russian sources told Reuters, saying he is prepared to fight on if Kyiv and the West do not respond. Three of the sources, familiar with discussions in Putin's entourage, said the veteran Russian leader had expressed frustration to a small group of advisers about what he views as Western-backed attempts to stymie negotiations and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's decision to rule out talks.

Iranian authorities have sentenced a Jewish man to die — and they plan to carry out the execution as soon as Monday, sources told The Post. The case has sent a shockwave through the tiny Jewish community in the Islamic Republic, and Iranian Jewish expats and others in the Jewish community in New York and Israel are sounding the alarm that it is a clear miscarriage of justice. Arvin Ghahremani, 20, was working out at the gym in the Iranian city of Kermanshah, about 500 miles outside of Tehran, in November 2022 when he was ambushed by seven men, one...