Free Republic

Zelensky defiantly stood his ground in Kyiv as Russia invaded - despite reports that Russia would claim it in days. UKRAINE drafted a secret plan to move its government to London before tyrant Vladimir Putin invaded in February 2022. But when Russian forces launched their illegal assault Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky famously refused Western pleas to seek safe haven. "The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride," he told the US, according to the Ukrainian embassy in Britain. The embassy said Ukrainians were "proud of their President" as he stood strong in the face of danger when Putin...

Russia's ability to outmatch Ukraine with artillery barrages on the battlefield has significantly reduced to just 1.5 Russian rounds for every Ukrainian shell fired back, Western officials have said. This compares with Russian forces launching at least five times as many artillery rounds as Ukraine could in the war previously - with the ratio at times much higher even than that. The Western officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, put the levelling out down to a "wide variety of factors". These factors include limitations in Russia's defence production lines, difficulties with transporting more rounds to the frontline by rail,...

A new ballistic missile fired by Russia at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro last week carried multiple warheads but no explosives, and caused limited damage, two senior Ukrainian government sources said. -snip- One of the sources said the missile was carrying dummy warheads and described the damage caused as "quite small". The second source said: "In this case, (the missile) was without explosives...There were no types of explosions like we expected. There was something, but it was not huge." -snip- U.S. officials have said Russia probably possesses only a handful of these missiles, which Western experts say appears to have...

Vladimir Putin has not been seen or heard from in the public eye since he made World War Three nuclear threats 12 days ago, sparking suspicion about his whereabouts. Rumours of Vladimir Putin's ill health have been swirling for years. The Russian President, 72, has not been seen in 12 days since he issued apocalyptic World War Three nuclear threats over the use of long-range Western missiles by Ukraine against Russian territory. It is unclear if the Kremlin dictator is unwell, on holiday or has simply chosen to remain out of sight. According to the Faridaily Telegram channel, which monitors...

Russian president Vladimir Putin is facing an economic nightmare as the nation struggles to continue to fund his war effort in Ukraine. Soaring food prices and depleted war resources have seen the Kremlin attempt to strike a balance between maintaining the war machine in Ukraine whilst ensuring domestic stability. Currently, a kilogram of potatoes is at least 73% more expensive than at the start of the year, while the price of butter has increased by more than 30%, according to data released by the Federal Statistics Service on Thursday. Russia had already experienced rising food prices before this years surge,...

Fierce fighting has raged in the region over the past week, claiming the lives of hundreds of Russian soldiers. Ukrainian forces wiped put a Russian assault group trying to cross a river in Kursk in a brutal attack. -snip- Putin's army sustained heavy losses after attempting to storm the river Psel on Monday. The attack ended in unmitigated disaster for the Russians, as the unit was wiped out during a ferocious artillery barrage. Images shot by a Ukrainian drone show Russian soldiers crossing the river in rubber dinghies. As they reach the shore, they have no time to dig in...