Free Republic

First 23 minutes on Israel, Gaza, Campus protests, remainder on Ukraine and Europe. He's been at the front lines in both conflicts.

Update (0933 EST): Russian military bloggers are blaming Russian General Teplinsky for ordering the glide bombing of the Ukrainian bridgehead by Su-34s even after a November 25th shoot down of another Su-34 carrying out that mission. The bloggers claim that Teplinsky is “obsessed” with destroying the Ukrainian bridgehead and has “crossed a line”, sacrificing hundreds of soldiers, Marines, and now up to four Su-34s. According to their sources, the general disregarded warnings of Ukrainian shuffling of advanced air defenses to Kherson and ordered the flights anyways. These bloggers may be referencing Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky who is the embattled commander...

A Putin army general has been 'killed by an exploding Russian mine', according to reports. Major-General Vladimir Zavadsky, 45, was deputy commander of Russia's 14th Army Corps. He perished 'as a result of a mine explosion in the rear area, and not a military clash with the enemy' on the frontline, reported Telegram channel VChK-OGPU. The report states that the incident occurred during a 'senseless' redeployment of his group away from the frontline, The channel alleged the Russian armed forces were making an attempt to cover-up the circumstances of his death and blame it on a Ukrainian artillery strike. An...

We’ve been hearing for weeks that Ukrainian forces were making some progress along the Dnipro River.Three weeks ago, the marines crossed the wide Dnipro River in southern Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast and secured a bridgehead in the settlement of Krynky on the Russian-dominated left bank.From Krynky, the marines have advanced south—expanding Kyiv’s five-month-old counteroffensive and challenging foreign observers who seem eager to appease the regime of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.What happens next is anyone’s guess. But what happened before to make the Krynky crossing possible increasingly is becoming clear. The Ukrainian military electronically and logistically isolated Russian forces in Kherson, repositioned...

Russia immediately backtracked on a statement released on Monday that said some of its troops had withdrawn from a key position in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, raising questions about the scale of Moscow's operations in the area. The Russian Ministry of Defense dismissed its own statements about the "regrouping" of the Dnieper Group of Forces published by state-run news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti as a "provocation", without elaboratinThe term "regrouping" has previously been used by the Kremlin in Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to describe a battlefield retreat by its forces. Ukraine has been gradually expanding...

Moscow's troops retreated from a key position in the partially occupied southern Kherson region, state-run news agencies cited the Kremlin as saying on Monday, before retracting their reports and apologizing. The Russian Ministry of Defense was quoted by Russian state-run news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti on Monday as saying that the command of the Dnipro Group of Forces decided to transfer troops to more advantageous positions east of the Russian-occupied left bank of the Kherson Oblast. After the regrouping, the military group "will release part of the forces that will be used for an offensive in other directions," the...

Two Russian state news agencies published alerts on Monday saying Moscow was moving troops to “more favorable positions” east of the Dnipro River in Ukraine, only to withdraw the information minutes later. The highly unusual incident suggested disarray in Russia's military establishment and state media over how to report the battlefield situation in southern Ukraine. -snip- In a series of three alerts on Monday, the RIA state news agency said that the command of Russia's Dnepr group of forces had decided to relocate troops to “more favorable positions” east of the Dnipro. It said that, after the regrouping, the Dnepr...

Ukrainian forces ramped up their attacks on Russian-held territory in the south while holding off Moscow’s assaults on the eastern town of Avdiivka, according to military experts and officials. The Ukrainian military broke through the enemy lines after intensified assaults across the Dnipro River, near the southern city of Kherson. “Ukrainian actions appear to be larger than previously observed tactical raids,” the think tank Institute for the Study of War said in a report. In the town of Avdiivka, just nine miles from the Moscow-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s forces managed to repel and hold their ground...

Ukraine’s military pushed back Russian forces to clear at least 10-15 kilometers from the left bank of the Dnipro River, Kyiv’s defense forces said on Thursday. “We continue to push the enemy out so that the strip from the left bank for at least 10-15 kilometers is completely cleared of them. This will critically reduce the number of attacks on the right bank, it will be easier for residents of settlements along the coast,” said Natalia Humeniuk, head of the Joint Coordination Press Center of the Southern Defense Forces, according to state news agency Ukrinform.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said Ukrainian forces probably carried out a limited raid across the Dnipro River and landed on Kherson Oblast’s eastern bank.

Ukrainian missiles struck one of the few bridges linking the Crimea Peninsula with the Ukrainian mainland early on Thursday, cutting one of the main supply routes for Russian occupation forces in southern Ukraine as Kyiv pushes to drive them out. Vladimir Saldo, the head of the Russian-installed administration in occupied parts of Ukraine's Kherson province, released video of himself on the Chonhar road bridge, where craters had been blasted through the asphalt. "Another meaningless act perpetrated by the Kyiv regime on orders from London. It solves nothing as far as the special military operation is concerned," he said, vowing to...

A senior Biden administration official says that U.S. spy satellites detected an explosion at the Kakhovka dam just before it collapsed, but American analysts still do not know who caused the dam’s destruction or how exactly it happened. (snip) American intelligence analysts suspect that Russia was behind the dam’s destruction, the senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational details. But he added that U.S. spy agencies still do not have any solid evidence about who was responsible. Seismic data picked up by the NORSAR observatory in Norway also supported the theory there had been...

Update from Ukraine | Who blown up the Dam? Ukraine Lost Leopard-2 John Deer Modification https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-HLyoSD5lg The summary of the situation of Russian re-invasion to Ukraine covering the last 48 hours, as of 6th June 2023 – 22:00 (Kyiv time). https://militaryland.net/news/invasion-day-468-summary/ *** Great interactive map with viewer controlled Map magnification tool to use for each Front! https://militaryland.net/maps/

On the morning of June 6, in the Kherson region, it became known about the breakthrough of the dam of the Kakhovskaya HPP. Kiev blamed Russia for the explosion of the hydroelectric power station, Russia stated that the reason for the dam break was allegedly the shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (while local residents, including those who lived close to the dam, did not report anything about the shelling). MAIN TOPIC: the breakthrough of the dam of the Kakhovskaya HPP in the Kherson region. What has already been flooded, how could it happen and what will be the...

The wall of a major dam in a part of southern Ukraine that Moscow controls collapsed Tuesday after a reported explosion, sending water gushing downriver and prompting dire warnings of ecological disaster as officials from both sides in the war ordered residents to evacuate. Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and hydroelectric power station, while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian military strikes in the contested area. The fallout could have broad consequences: Flooding homes, streets and businesses downstream; depleting water levels upstream that help cool Europe’s largest nuclear power plant; and draining supplies of drinking water to the...

Ukraine's military said on Tuesday that Russian forces blew up a major dam in southern Ukraine, while Moscow-installed official in the city of Nova Kakhovka in the Russian-controlled parts of the Kherson region denied it. "The Kakhovka (reservoir) was blown up by the Russian occupying forces," the South command of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on Tuesday on its Facebook page. "The scale of the destruction, the speed and volumes of water, and the likely areas of inundation are being clarified." Reuters was unable to immediately verify the Ukrainian statement. Earlier, Russian state news agency quoted the Moscow-installed mayor of Nova...

What's it like living in Russian-occupied Kherson for Ukrainian citizens? Check out today's epic new story to see how some Ukrainian partisans are fighting for their city by any means possible!

Ukraine’s military has set up positions on the eastern side of the Dnipro River near Kherson city, the Institute for the Study of War cites Russian military bloggers as saying. Infiltrating the area could be a first step towards trying to dislodge Russian forces from positions they are using to shell and shoot at Kherson. The constant attacks have made it impossible for residents to return to normal life months after Ukrainian troops liberated the city from occupation. Ukrainian military forays across the river could also mark the first tentative steps towards launching a long-awaited spring offensive to reclaim more...

Another "goodwill" gesture from the Russian troops can be expected in the near future. Russians are preparing to withdraw from the remaining territories of the Kherson region, said the head of the Joint Press Center of the Ukrainian Defense Forces South, Natalia Humeniuk. Earlier, the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that collaborators in the Kherson region had already begun to flee. They were taken to Crimea by military trucks. Only hand luggage was allowed to be taken with them. At the same time, mass desertion began among the Russian troops. As Humeniuk explained, Russian soldiers are literally sitting on their suitcases,...

The heavy casualties suffered by Russian paratroopers in Ukraine has one Russian expert calling for a rethink of Russia's airborne units. Many of the recent criticisms about the performance of Russia's elite parachute force, known as the VDV, have been voiced about lightly armed airborne units since World War II. The problems range from poorly designed vehicles to parachute drops conducted without first suppressing enemy air defenses. -snip- Russia's huge airborne force, composed of 45,000 paratroopers in four divisions, is actually a separate military branch that serves as shock troops and a rapid-intervention force. Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February...