Free Republic

Russia's defence ministry says its forces are taking part in the battle for Soledar, a town north of Bakhmut in east Ukraine which has been the focus of recent fighting. It comes after the head of Russia's notoriously brutal Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, claimed his fighters were in full control there and boasted that only his troops took part. Mr Prigozhin will most likely use any victory to bolster the reputation of Wagner as an effective fighting force in the eyes of President Putin. But the Russian defence ministry appeared to contradict the controversial oligarch's claims. Spokesman Igor Konashenkov...

The Ukrainian military made another attempt to land an assault force of up to two companies on the left bank of the Kakhovka reservoir and seize the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, with the attack repelled by Russian troops, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Wednesday. "The Kiev regime does not cease provocations with the aim of creating the threat of a man-made disaster at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. Today, at about 4:00 a.m., up to two enemy companies made another attempt to land an assault force on the left bank of the Kakhovka reservoir and seize the...

Russia has said its forces have destroyed two U.S.-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, also known as HIMARS, in Ukraine. The number adds to the four HIMARS launchers that Russia claimed to have destroyed over a two-week period in July. A "high-precision" strike in Kharkiv took out the systems and killed 53 people, Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov, a spokesperson for the Russian defense ministry, said in an announcement on Monday, according to Russian state news agency TASS. "As a result of a high-precision strike in the city of Kharkiv, on the territory of the Ukrainian Energy Machines plant, two American launchers...

Russia unleashed a string of attacks Monday against rail and fuel installations deep inside Ukraine, far from the front lines of Moscow's new eastern offensive, in a bid to thwart Ukrainian efforts to marshal supplies for the fight....Five railroad stations in central and western Ukraine were hit, and one worker was killed, said Oleksandr Kamyshin, head of Ukraine's state railway. The bombardment included a missile attack near Lviv, the western city close to the Polish border that has been swelled by Ukrainians fleeing the fighting elsewhere around the country....Russia also destroyed an oil refinery in Kremenchuk, in central Ukraine, along...

A Ukrainian policeman and municipal workers carry a body bag as they exhume two bodies from graves dug in the yard of a house in the village of Vabliya, near Kyiv, on April 14. A Ukrainian policeman and municipal workers carry a body bag as they exhume two bodies from graves dug in the yard of a house in the village of Vabliya, near Kyiv, on April 14. Blasts were heard early on April 16 in the cities of Kyiv and Lviv after warnings from Russia that it would intensify attacks on the Ukrainian capital after accusing Ukraine of targeting...