Free Republic

The National Anticorruption Bureau of Ukraine has long been a battleground in Ukrainian politics, where graft is rifeKYIV, Ukraine—Youthful protesters at the biggest demonstration here since Russia’s 2022 invasion were championing a cause that, at first glance, seemed unusual in a country known for its revolutions: the power of a law-enforcement agency.In a country that has spent more than three decades of its independence fighting the dual scourges of Russian aggression and crippling corruption, the establishment of the agency under U.S. pressure in 2015 was seen as a watershed that could boost Ukraine’s economy and accelerate its integration with the...

Ukraine’s unprecedented drone strikes on Russian air force bases weaken Moscow’s ability to wage war on its smaller neighbor and undermine its capacity to threaten more distant rivals such as the U.S.—a shift with potentially far-reaching geostrategic implications. A sizable portion of the fleet Moscow uses to launch guided-missile attacks on Ukraine—and would rely on to strike adversaries in the event of a nuclear war—was damaged or destroyed in the coordinated attacks. Russia no longer produces the decades-old Tupolev planes, meaning it has lost a cornerstone of its ability to project military power beyond its borders. Newer Russian planes are...

The outlines of President-elect Donald Trump’s initial efforts to end the war in Ukraine from his visit to Europe last week are starting to emerge for the first time. The main takeaway: Europe would have to shoulder most of the burden of supporting Kyiv with troops to oversee a cease-fire and weapons to deter Russia. At a meeting in Paris on Dec. 7, Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron that he doesn’t support Ukrainian membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but that he wanted to see a strong, well-armed Ukraine emerge from any cessation...

Russia launched one of the biggest missile-and-drone attacks of the war on cities across Ukraine early Sunday, knocking out power in parts of at least three regions, with some areas also reporting water cuts. Ukrainian officials said the attack looked like an emphatic response by Russian President Vladimir Putin to moves from Kyiv’s allies to seek a peace deal after President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory this month. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Putin for the first time in two years on Friday and urged him to negotiate, but Putin stuck to his demands that Kyiv cede territory and remain outside...