Free Republic

The towering Mother Ukraine statue in Kyiv — one of the nation’s most recognizable landmarks — lost its hammer-and-sickle symbol on Sunday as officials replaced the Soviet-era emblem with the country’s trident coat of arms. The move is part of a wider shift to reclaim Ukraine’s cultural identity from the Communist past amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. Erected in 1981 as part of a larger complex housing the national World War II museum, the 200-foot (61-meter) Mother Ukraine monument stands on the right bank of the Dnieper River in Kyiv, facing eastward toward Moscow. Created in the image of a fearless...

"...there is a small U.S. military presence at the embassy in conjunction with the Defense Attachés office to help us work on accountability of the material that is going in and out of Ukraine," Kirby said, referencing the weapons and other support the U.S. has been sending to Kyiv. "So they're attached to that embassy and to that the defense attache." Kirby...added that those troops "are not fighting on the battlefield." In addition, Fox News is told that the U.S. forces in Kyiv also provide security services.

President Biden on Thursday said the U.S. has reason to believe that Russia is "engaged in a false flag operation," and said he believes that an invasion into Ukraine "will happen in the next several days."Tensions have spiked along the line that separates Ukrainian forces from Russia-backed separatists in the country’s east, with the parties accusing each other of intensive shelling.As he departed the White House, Biden said the threat of a Russian invasion into Ukraine is "very high," and that he believes it could happen "in the next several days." "They have not moved their troops out. They've moved...