Free Republic

Ukraine is losing the battle on the ground. Many of its soldiers are tired and exhausted after three years of fighting. The question – can the country endure another year of war? Their forces are still resisting Russian advances in the east. But they're almost surrounded near the town of Kurakhove – scene to some of the most intense fighting in recent weeks. The Black Pack, a mortar unit, is trying to prevent their encirclement around Kurakhove. The Russian are closing in on three sides. We meet the team at a safe house, getting a rest from the fighting. They're...

Israel’s war on multiple fronts has not just worn down its enemy. It's not just taken the lives of thousands of civilians in Gaza and Lebanon. It’s also continuing to extract a price from its own people. There’s a growing sense of war weariness in Israel. The recent ceasefire deal with Lebanon will be a relief for many. Not least for Noam Glukhovsky – an IDF reservist, who’s spent much of the past year serving on the front line as a medic. We spoke to Noam, 33, in Tel Aviv before the ceasefire was announced. “We can’t keep doing this...

Without vital US military support there is a real danger Ukraine could end up losing this war - not immediately but in the longer term. President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Washington to spell that out, hoping that he can persuade Congress to pass a $60bn aid package that has stalled amid a row over US border security. On Sunday, Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, warned Ukraine is in mortal danger without continuing American support. Western officials have told the BBC they remain confident the US administration will find a way out of the current impasse. But even if President Biden...

Oleksii tells me: "I feel safe here because we are on our land and even the ground will bring me help." That's despite the nearby sound of small-arms fire, exploding artillery shells landing within sight and the roar of Russian jets overhead. The ground he and the small team of Ukrainian troops now occupy is on the border of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The same ground that Russian President Vladimir Putin recently declared as being Russian forever. Over the past week the men of Ukraine's D1 National Guard Unit have advanced more than 20km (12 miles) east from the...

Russia has one of the largest and most powerful armed forces in the world, but that has not been apparent in its initial invasion of Ukraine. Many military analysts in the West have been surprised by its performance on the battlefield so far, with one describing it as "dismal". Its military advances appear to have largely stalled and some now question whether it can recover from the losses it has suffered. This week, a senior Nato military official told the BBC, "the Russians clearly have not achieved their goals and probably will not at the end of the day". So...