Free Republic

Every hour, more towns and cities across the country were being captured by advancing Russian armies. CNN was showing Russian paratroopers, their elbows marked with white stripes, at the Antonov Airport just outside Kyiv. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin declared the end of Ukraine as it was.... “One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Biden said in Kyiv. How did something that was supposed to be Putin’s several-day-long “special military operation” turn into a staggering defeat and a subsequent grinding war that the Kremlin’s propaganda now calls Russia’s “fight for survival”? ... The first was its failure to...

Even though the Battle of Donbas is far from over, Ukraine is expected to open the next chapter of the war sometime in the near future — a highly anticipated, major counter-offensive operation in the south, particularly to liberate the Russian-occupied city of Kherson. Kyiv has declared its intentions to liberate the only regional capital captured by Russia following the Feb. 24 full-scale invasion. Experts across the world agree that retaking Kherson is the most feasible way for Ukraine to score a major victory over Russia and turn the tide of the war. As part of a counter-offensive operation, Ukraine...