Free Republic

Russia today boasted its missile strikes were 'right on target' in a sickening Telegram post made just hours after Vladimir Putin unleashed a barrage of rockets on Ukrainian homes. More than 20 cruise missiles and two drones were fired at cities and towns across Ukraine that were miles away from the front lines, killing at least 23 civilians including a mother and her two-year-old daughter as they slept inside their homes. Families were blown to pieces, with many victims buried amongst the rubble of their homes, as Russia's missiles thundered through the air and smashed into residential buildings. Five hours...

Vladimir Putin has reportedly fired a top admiral because of his refusal to send his sailors to fight in the war against Ukraine. Admiral Sergei Avakyants, 66, was suddenly stripped of the role of commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet last week during war games involving nuclear bombers ordered by the Kremlin. Avakyants has been seeking to protect his men from deployment - to prevent them from being cannon fodder - according to Volya and Brief Telegram. The admiral had repeatedly resisted or subverted orders to send his men to fight in Ukraine. When forced to do so he allegedly...

The Russian currency has fallen yet again against the dollar and euro. Is it just a cycle, or is something bigger going on? Since the beginning of the year, Russia's currency, the ruble, has lost 16% of its value against the dollar and 13% against the euro. This week, it was trading at around 83 rubles to the former and 91 against the latter. This makes it the third-worst performing global currency so far this year, behind the Egyptian pound and the Argentine peso. Following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the currency immediately fell to 113 rubles against...

Far from the front line of the war in Ukraine, battle lines of a different kind were drawn when residents of a Moscow district opposed a rumored proposal for a mosque for 60,000 worshippers by a lake cherished by Russian Orthodox believers. In February, people in Kosino-Ukhtomsky started to voice anger at the complex, which would include a Muslim center and educational facilities. President of the predominantly Muslim Russian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, fiercely loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin, called on anti-mosque demonstrators to "show your patriotism" by going to the trenches in Ukraine. Prominent MMA fighters also...

ONE of Vladimir Putin's war planes dropped a bomb on a Russian city tonight - blowing a massive 65ft crater in the street. Residents said they heard a whistling noise before a blast erupted beside a block of flats in Belgorod, only 25 miles from the border with Ukraine. In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Defence said: "As a Sukhoi Su-34 air force plane was flying over the city of Belgorod there was an accidental discharge of aviation ammunition."

Russia's annual in-person commemoration of its country's World War II fighters is not going to take place this year, according to state authorities. The nixing of the face-to-face "Immortal Regiment" march comes amid reports that the nation's major national event Victory Day event, which is scheduled to take place May 9 and celebrates the Soviet Union's role in defeating Nazi Germany, may be canceled or downsized in certain regions including Crimea, Kursk and Belgorod due to ongoing security concerns resulting from the war with Ukraine. Russian State Duma Deputy Elena Tsunaeva, co-chairperson of the central headquarters of the "Immortal Regiment...

A prominent pro-Kremlin propagandist has been unmasked as a 37-year-old Navy veteran and tropical fish seller from New Jersey. Divorcee Sarah Bils is known to her 100,000 devoted fans online as 'Donbas Devushka', or Donbas Girl. She posed as a Russian Jew from the occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk and a geopolitics expert. -snip- She left the military in November last year with an honorable discharge but only after being demoted. Bils claims she was 'kicked out' of the Navy due to her 'leftist views.'

A former commander of Russian forces in Ukraine has likely returned to the war-torn country as "intense tensions" develop among Russia's top military figures, according to a new assessment. General Colonel Mikhail Teplinsky, who served as the commander of Russia's VDV, the airborne forces branch of the Russian military, was removed from Moscow's operations in Ukraine in January 2023, which Western analysts noted at the time.

A leading crony of Vladimir Putin has urged him to stop the war now and tell the world Russia has achieved the aims of its 'special military operation', including decimating 'a large part of the active male population of Ukraine'. Yevgeny Prigozhin - head of the Wagner mercenary army deployed by the Kremlin - posted a rambling statement online last night in which he made the surprise call for the war to stop. He claimed Russia had taken a 'fat chunk' of Ukrainian territory, and that the most strategic route for its armed forces - who have suffered severe losses...

As the Ukrainian spring bloodily transitions into summer, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Generals are trying to manage a stalled, if not, failed winter offensive in the Donbas that has left as many as 75,000 Russian soldiers and Wagner Group mercenaries dead. As the Kremlin’s overall casualties continue to mount, upwards of 200,000 according to the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense, it is becoming increasingly clear we are likely seeing the beginning of the end of Putin in Ukraine – especially as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his Generals draw nearer Kyiv’s much-anticipated counteroffensive. Ukraine is a vast Texas-size...

WAGNER Group warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin fears Ukraine has built up a 200,000-strong reserve of troops ready to launch a huge counter-blitz. The Russian billionaire has warned his feared mercenary army to "prepare for the worst". -snip- Prigozhin, who heads the group, said they have used reconnaissance satellites to spot the reserves. In a post published by Concord group on Telegram, he said: "There is a joke that ends with the phrase: 'So big, but you believe in fairy tales'. "Therefore, the political scientist Ishchenko and other very positive kind guys may turn out to be the best military analysts in...

As its Black Sea fleet flagship, the Moskva, reached the depths of the seabed in mid-April 2022, Russia insisted Ukraine had nothing to do with the sinking of the 510-crew guided missile cruiser. Russian state media provided various explanations for the sinking of the prominent flagship—none of which included a deliberate Ukrainian strike. Russia's Defense Ministry said a "fire" followed by a "munitions blast" had inflicted "serious damage" on the cruiser, prompting a crew evacuation. "The explosions of ammunition have been stopped," the ministry then said, according to state media, which claimed the ship was still afloat and being taken...

An appalling video emerged Tuesday showing what appears to be a Russian soldier savagely beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war with a knife, leading Kyiv to compare Vladimir Putin’s regime to ISIS. The footage, which has been circulating on pro-Russian Telegram channels, shows an apparent Russian serviceman slicing into the neck of a captive wearing a yellow armband associated with Ukrainian forces. The unidentified victim is still alive at the start of the decapitation and is heard begging: “It hurts, stop.” The executioner’s comrades cheer him on in the background, urging him to “f—ing cut it, break the spine! What,...

Vladimir Putin appears to be clamping down on Russian men trying to dodge his invasion of Ukraine by creating a new digital conscription system which would leave them unable to flee abroad. -snip- Under the new plan, Russian men will start receiving draft papers by registered post and via their personal account on the 'Gosuslugi' online public services portal - the same site used to book doctor appointments or manage state pensions. The old system of delivering papers in person will also remain in place. The new rules will apply both to conscripts and to men who are targeted in...

Russia is ready to introduce electronic military draft papers for the first time in its history in an effort to make it harder for men to avoid being drafted after the lower house of parliament gave its backing to the move. The State Duma, the lower chamber, gave its backing to the necessary legislation in two separate votes. Some lawmakers complained the changes were being rushed through without giving them enough time to scrutinise the changes. -snip- NO SECOND MOBILISATION Peskov dismissed suggestions that the digitalisation plans might spark a further wave of panic and emigration among young male Russians...

Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin, for the most part, listened to the recommendations of the attending physicians and rested almost all day. In the evening, Putin held a meeting with representatives of the leadership of the power and military blocs in video communication mode, but if the image of the meeting participants was present on the president's monitor, then on the monitors of the meeting participants themselves, the image of the president was absent, only a voice was heard. This format of communication happens in cases of poor health of the president. During the meeting, the president was informed about...

Classified documents from a Pentagon intelligence report have appeared on messaging app Discord since February with top Russian officials reportedly wanting to sabotage Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin plans to "throw" Vladimir Putin's Ukraine war while he's allegedly receiving chemotherapy, leaked Pentagon documents claim. -snip- According to the leaked documents, which have since been removed from the platforms, Russian National Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev and Russian Chief of the General Staff Valeriy Gerasimov want to "throw" the president's war while he's getting treatment for cancer. The memo says: "[The source] on 22 February indicated that Gerasimov reportedly planned to continue...

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that, all the preparations are in full swing for the May 9 Victory Day Parade on Moscow’s Red Square. The governors of the concerned regions would make their decisions on regional events proceeding from security considerations. Due to the decision taken by the authorities of the Kursk Region against holding the event this year, Dmitry Peskov was asked whether the May 9 Victory Day Parade is cancelled in the Red Square also. Dmitry Peskov clarified that, “This is the prerogative of the heads of regions. Naturally, they make corresponding decisions proceeding from...

A Ukrainian fintech founder and drone developer is offering about $540,000 in prize money to the winner of a race to land a drone on Moscow's Red Square. Volodymyr Yatsenko, the co-founder of Monobank, a Ukrainian online banking service, announced the competition in a Facebook post last week. The competition is open to any Ukrainian drone developers and will take place on May 9, according to the Ukrainian Military Center, a Ukrainian news outlet covering defense. May 9 in Russia is Victory Day, a time when the country celebrates the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. Yatsenko himself is the developer...

Governors of two Russian regions have cited security concerns in scrapping military parades next month, although one theory suggested the cancelation was due to a lack of military equipment caused by the war in Ukraine. Victory Day parades on May 9 are held throughout Russia and parts of the former Soviet Union to commemorate the defeat of the Nazis in World War II, which is widely known as the Great Patriotic War. The most prominent event takes place in Moscow's Red Square in which a march past of troops and military equipment provides a colorful display of Russian military might,...