Free Republic

Video of the late Senator John McCain (R-AZ) saying that Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) was working for Russian President Vladimir Putin has garnered renewed attention online after Paul single-handedly blocked a vote on a new aid package to Ukraine on Thursday. A C-SPAN video of McCain's remarks in 2017 was shared to Twitter on Thursday by patient advocate Peter Morley, Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko and other social media users. "So I repeat again - the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin," the late senator said in the short video. In the clip, McCain was discussing NATO membership...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

-At least 20 dead, including three children, and 90 hurt after three Russian rockets struck city of Vinnytsya -Office block was badly damaged in Thursday morning attack, which also torched vehicles in nearby car park -Zelensky called strike 'terrorism', saying there are no military targets in city which is 450 mm the miles from the front -It is the sixth Russian strike in a little over two weeks to hit a purely civilian target, with scores of people killed At least 20 people - including three children - are dead and 90 wounded after Russian rockets hit another Ukrainian city...

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, ordered the Ukrainian military to re-establish control over coastal regions in southern Ukraine. Ukraine is amassing a million-strong fighting force in order to achieve this goal.Source: Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s Minister of Defence, in an interview for The Times [of London]Details: "Ukraine is massing a million-strong fighting force equipped with western weapons to recover its southern territory from Russia," The Times wrote.Reznikov said that President Zelenskyy had ordered Ukraine’s military to retake occupied coastal areas which are vital to the country’s economy.Quote from Reznikov: "We understand that, politically, it’s very necessary for our country. The president...

A detailed list of the destroyed and captured vehicles and equipment of both sides can be seen below. This list is constantly updated as additional footage becomes available

Western policy elites that claim not to have seen this war coming -- after the Biden administration treated Ukraine as a de facto member of NATO during all of 2021, and after Russia had been saying for nearly a decade that it would not tolerate Ukraine as a US military bulwark on its border -- are just plain fools. If they really were this blind, they were unqualified for their jobs.Before the war started, as late as December of 2021, the Russians very probably would have settled the Ukraine problem by a declaration of permanent Ukrainian neutrality (i.e., no NATO...

The U.S. originally spearheaded NATO against the global hegemony sought by the Soviet Union, which, much like NATO, promoted "conflict and confrontation" with every government that did not share its ideology. The historical irony is that the U.S. emerged from the ashes of the Cold War as an ideological nation itself with the same zeal to remake the world.Reckless NATO expansionism led by Washington contributed to the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War—which then provided NATO expanders an excuse to invite Finland and Sweden into its ranks. Though the alliance's advocates say these countries are joining of their own volition to seek security...

A detailed list of the destroyed and captured vehicles and equipment of both sides can be seen below. This list is constantly updated as additional footage becomes available

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) sees U.S. foreign aid for Ukraine as a fiscal issue tied to inflation. During an interview with Mobile, AL radio FM Talk 106.5, the junior Kentucky Republican U.S. Senator likened the expenditures for Ukraine to any other government expenditures, which he said all contribute to government debt. However, noting his sympathies for Ukraine in their plight against Russia, he said U.S. spending on the problem did not make sense. “Inflation is caused by spending money that you don’t have that the Federal Reserve buys the debt,” he said. “So whether it is for Ukraine, whether it...

Ukraine began evacuating its soldiers on Wednesday from the embattled city of Severodonetsk, the strategic eastern city that Russia has been battling to take over in a bid to control the Donbas region, local officials said. Ukrainian forces retreated after suffering big losses in the city that’s now about 80% controlled by Russian forces, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said Wednesday. “This is not a betrayal,” Haidai wrote in a post on Telegram. The governor said the retreat across the river to Severodonetsk’s twin city, Lysychansk, was part of their strategy

The United States will provide Ukraine with more advanced rocket systems and munitions, President Joe Biden announced Tuesday. The commander in chief wrote in a New York Times op-ed that his administration would provide the weapons that “will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine.”

IS Ukraine LOSING the war in Donbas? Defenders fall back to avoid capture as Russians advance after blasting towns to wastelands while Boris Johnson offers fresh support to Ukrainian president Zelensky Withdrawal from the Luhansk region likely, admits Ukraine in new war blow Area is hugely significant and one of main aims of Putin and Russia's invasion President Zelensky said Ukraine was protecting Luhansk as best it could Putin had launched invasion under the aims of capturing Luhansk and Donetsk Boris Johnson offered renewed support for Ukraine in a phone call with Zelensky Ukraine has admitted it may have to...

Russian forces have captured a key town with major ramifications for their invasion of Ukraine, according to the Russian military and British intelligence. Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said Russia had total control of the town of Lyman, according to state media. The UK's Ministry of Defense said in a memo Saturday that Lyman will prove a critical area to hold due to its railways and key bridges. "By 27 May, Russian forces had likely captured most of the town of Lyman, in the north of Donetsk Oblast, in what is likely a preliminary operation for the next...

Retired Four Star General Barry McCaffrey who now serves as a "military analyst" for MSNBC tweeted out footage of fighting in Ukraine that was actually a clip from a video game. On Monday, retired four-star general and MSNBC "military analyst" Barry R. McCaffrey posted a clip of video game footage to Twitter. Alongside it he claimed it was a display of strength from Ukraine's air defense. It's actually footage from a video game. The clip in question came from YouTube's "shorts" section, and is titled "Russian MiG-29's Get Shot Down By Air Defense System | Arma 3 #Shorts #Airdefense #Arma3."...

Up until this week, there were only a handful of Republicans in Congress who openly opposed American military assistance for Ukraine to help fight off a Russian invasion — but that number jumped dramatically Tuesday night when the U.S. House easily approved a nearly $40 billion aid package. “The American people do not support paying for constant U.S. involvement in foreign affairs while our own government fails our own country,” said U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Rome, one of 57 House Republicans to vote against the Ukraine aid plan. “We swore an oath to serve the United States of...

A convoy of Russian tanks has been picked off one by one in the Donbas in the latest blow to the Kremlin, footage appears to show. The video allegedly shows an ambush from Ukraine's 54th Separate Mechanised Brigade targeting the invading tanks in Donetsk. Russian forces are focusing their offensive in the eastern Ukrainian region after suffering heavy losses in major central cities, but they are still meeting fierce resistance. The footage shows the tanks exploding into fireballs while they are stationed on a rural road.

A Danish soldier who volunteered to fight alongside the Ukrainian armed forces has made unverified claims that Ukrainian soldiers have been executing Russian prisoners of war. The Dane, who uses the pseudonym Jonas, has alleged that Ukrainian soldiers have killed Russian prisoners of war during the war, saying: “I have heard of one successful prisoner exchange, and that’s it,” and adding: “People are being killed.” Said to be a marksman, Jonas travelled to Ukraine to volunteer to fight alongside the Ukrainian armed forces and told state-owned Danish broadcaster TV2 he has also killed Russian soldiers — but never any captured...

Russia lost a colonel, yet another death of a high-ranking military official roughly six weeks into Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russian Col. Alexander Bespalov was killed during fighting in Ukraine and buried in Ozersk, ... Bespalov was the commander of the 59th Guards Tank Regiment and part of the 144th Guards Motorized Rifle Division, according to Visegard 24. ... Several top Russian military officials have been killed in combat since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. At least seven generals have died in the conflict to snipers, close combat, and bombings, according to a March 26 report from the Washington...

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry issued an ultimatum to the Ukrainian garrison defending Mariupol.“Lay down your arms,” Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the director of the Russian National Center for Defense Management, said in a briefing distributed by the defence ministry.“A terrible humanitarian catastrophe has developed,” Mizintsev said. “All who lay down their arms are guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol.”The deadline is 5 a.m. Monday, Moscow time, or 10 p.m. Sunday Eastern Daylight Time.With about two hours remaining to the deadline, the defenders of Mariupol rejected the demand. This sets the stage for the largest siege of a city since...

The base outside Lviv, Ukraine, that was attacked by Russian forces early Sunday was a key link between Ukraine’s armed forces and Western militaries before the war — and has become an important logistics hub and training center for foreign fighters since Russia’s invasion began. A Ukrainian military official said that up to 1,000 foreign fighters were training at the base — the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, which is also known as the Yavoriv military complex — as part of the new International Legion that Ukraine has formed to help fight Russia.