Free Republic

A growing number of young Ukrainians have been unknowingly recruited by Russian forces as unwilling suicide bombers as the Ukraine-Russia War drags on in its third year, the Guardian reported last week. Russian forces have been recruiting Ukrainians, mainly teenagers, to bomb police stations, post offices, or military targets under the guise of odd jobs postings on Telegram as part of an ongoing shadow war. For example, 19-year-old Oleh told the Guardian that he was offered $1,000 to video himself vandalizing a police station in western Ukraine with provided materials. He collected a rucksack from a given exchange point with...

Vladimir Putin has been warned that Russia is facing an economic crisis as potato prices shoot up and fail to meet high demand. Prices of potatoes have skyrocketed by a staggering 167% over the last year, marking the most significant increase among foodstuffs. The Russian President admitted in May: "It turns out that we don't have enough potatoes. I spoke with [President of Belarus] Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko. He said, 'We've already sold everything to Russia'." The soaring cost of this staple is attributed to poor harvests reducing supplies. Compounding this, households are turning to the typically affordable food option as...

NATO fighter planes were scrambled today amid a brutal Russian missile and military drone onslaught on civilian, energy and military sites in Ukraine. Harrowing footage showed residents in Poltava screaming after a strike destroyed ordinary apartment blocks triggering fires amid the debris of smashed buildings. The wave of attacks by Vladimir Putin - which led to power cuts in multiple regions - came soon after Donald Trump announced in the Oval Office that his administration was actively talking to Moscow. “We are having very serious discussions about that war, trying to get it ended,” said the US president. On whether...

Apart from joining NATO, Ukraine’s only option would be nuclear weapons, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the European Council earlier this week while discussing what needs to be done to protect the eastern European country still fending off Moscow's invasion. “Who gave up nuclear weapons? All of them? ... Ukraine. Who is fighting today? Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said. As one can imagine, the statement had a ballistic impact. Later that day, in a meeting with NATO top chief Mark Rutte, Zelenskyy had to explain that Ukraine has never discussed preparing to produce any nuclear weapons or to build a nuclear bomb.

There are four reasons why the coming year could be the year the Ukraine war ends—and plenty of reasons why it might continue for the foreseeable future. Principal among these is the huge gap between Putin and Zelensky on potential terms. The factors favoring an end to the war appear to be gaining. What are these factors? First, there is Ukraine’s brilliant and bold military move into Russia in the Kursk region.

In a surprise move on Aug. 6, a strong Ukrainian force—eventually numbering around a dozen battalions each with up to 400 troops—breached the defenses along the Russia-Ukraine border adjacent to Russia’s Kursk Oblast. In a heady couple of weeks before the front stabilized, the Ukrainians routed poorly-trained Russian conscripts and captured 400 square miles of Kursk Oblast. “This has put [Russian Pres. Vladimir] Putin under pressure,” U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey said. Rightly embarrassed, Putin ordered the Kremlin to recapture Kursk by Oct. 1. And on Wednesday, Russian troops dutifully launched a counterattack along the western edge of the Ukrainian...