Free Republic

Time may be running out for the Russian private military company, the Wagner Group. Most of the mercenaries fighting for Wagner are about to go home, and what fighters do remain could soon be cut off from the rest of Russia’s armed forces.Last fall, Wagner recruited heavily in Russian prisons to bolster its ranks. Wagner fighters were credited with taking Soledar and are now the tip of the spear in Russia’s attack on the city of Bakhmut.President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Ukrainian soldiers at front-line positions near Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast on March 22, according to the President's Office. During his...

His private army is pushing hard to give Russia a battlefield win in Ukraine, but mounting evidence suggests the Kremlin has moved to curb what it sees as the excessive political clout of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary group. Prigozhin, a 61-year-old ex-convict, has grabbed headlines in recent months over his bloody role in Ukraine and is sometimes portrayed in the West as a real-life James Bond villain. Shaven-headed and fond of coarse language, he has made a splash in Russian-language media too where he has revelled in being sanctioned by the West, publicly insulted Russia's top military...

Humanitarian worker and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Pete Reed was killed while aiding civilians in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on Thursday, according to his family and two medical aid groups he worked with. Reed, who served two deployments as a Marine rifleman in Afghanistan, founded the nonprofit Global Response Medicine in 2017. In a statement, the organization said, "Pete was the bedrock of GRM, serving as Board President for 4 years. In January, Pete stepped away from GRM to work with Global Outreach Doctors on their Ukraine mission and was killed while rendering aid." Andrew Lustig, the founder and president of Global...

Southwest of the city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian soldiers Andriy and Borisych live in a candle-lit bunker cut into the frozen earth. For several weeks they have been confronting hundreds of fighters belonging to the Russian private military contractor Wagner throwing themselves against Ukrainian defenses. Disguised in a balaclava, Andriy recounts one seemingly endless firefight when they came under attack by a flood of Wagner fighters. “We were fighting for about 10 hours in a row. And it wasn’t like just waves, it was uninterrupted. So it was just like they didn’t stop coming.” Their AK-47 rifles became so hot from...

A former American Navy SEAL was killed this week during Russia’s assault on eastern Ukraine while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces, a Navy official tells TIME.Daniel Swift, a Navy Special Warfare Operator First Class who had gone AWOL, died Jan. 18 after suffering injuries with a unit under attack by Russia, the official said.

The Iranian government is stepping up its efforts to eliminate the opponents of the regime who have fled the country. The Washington Post reports that the Iranians are offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to mercenaries...

More and more North Korean construction workers deployed to Russia are escaping from their jobs after hearing they are to be sent to Russian-controlled areas in Ukraine, sources in Russia told RFA. The cash-strapped North Korean government sends legions of workers to Russia to earn desperately needed foreign currency. Workers forward the lion’s share of their salaries to the government, but what they get to keep is greater than what they could earn doing similar work back home. But now that there is demand for construction in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, increasing numbers of North Korean construction workers...

Wagner-Line: How useful is Russia's Defensive construction?

LONDON — Lines at neighboring borders and protests are just some of the scenes in Russia following President Vladimir Putin’s call for partial military mobilization. Last week, Putin ordered up to 300,000 Russians to serve in the invasion of Ukraine that began in February. Since then, thousands of citizens have fled the country to bordering nations, including Georgia and Mongolia. A satellite image of the Russia-Georgia border taken on Tuesday shows a multitude of cars and people waiting at the crossing. According to Russian state news outlet Tass, more than 5,000 cars had created the traffic jam, which was up...

Ukrainian troops are encircling Russian forces in Lyman, an occupied town in the northeast of the country, as Kyiv presses on with its counteroffensive to recapture seized territory. Maps detailing Ukrainian advance in the region amid a continued counteroffensive show its forces moving north across the Siverskyi Donets river from areas east and west of town, and east across the Oskil river from positions north of Lyman. The British Defense Ministry assessed on Wednesday that over the last few days, Ukraine has pressed its offensive operations in the northeast of the country. Its units advanced on at least two axes...

Russia has just finished a Potemkin referendum conducted in the illegally occupied Ukrainian oblasts (provinces) of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson (see Vladimir Putin to Address Russia; Annexation of Ukraine Provinces and Mobilization Seem to Be on the Table). The “voting” began on September 23, and the question is whether those provinces wish to be annexed to Russia.There are complicating factors. All four oblasts are on the front line of a war between Putin’s invading army and the armed forces of Ukraine. Many, if not most, of the residents, are refugees. The voting began within 48 hours after the announcement....

The “partial mobilization” of Russian men to fight in Putin’s War in Ukraine is shaping up pretty much the fiasco we thought it would be (see Vladimir Putin to Address Russia; Annexation of Ukraine Provinces and Mobilization Seem to Be on the Table). It is equal parts black comedy, political thriller, and tragedy. But, don’t worry, the comedic and thriller elements will go away very soon. The war in Ukraine has left Russia facing a military personnel crisis. About 75% of Russia’s regular ground forces participated in the opening act of the Special Military Operation (SMO). These were reinforced by...

The freed prisoners were American, British, Croatian, Moroccan and Swedish nationals, the ministry said in a statement, adding that a plane carrying the prisoners landed in the kingdom. British lawmaker Robert Jenrick said Aiden Aslin was among those released. He was captured earlier this year then sentenced to death by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Russia also released U.S. citizens Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, a family representative told Reuters on Wednesday. The pair, both from Alabama, were captured in June

"I do not find that as a lawful order, we do not see this as reasonable" "We are not going to be implicated by any means as looters, we will not stand this" Video submitted to the Kyiv Independent, who covered this and other controversies raised by foreign legion members in a new article (linked in comments)

Up to 100,000 North Korean soldiers could be sent to bolster Vladimir Putin’s forces fighting Ukraine, according to Russian reports. A leading defence expert in Moscow, reserve colonel Igor Korotchenko, told state TV: “We shouldn’t be shy in accepting the hand extended to us by Kim Jong-un.” North Korea has made it clear through “diplomatic channels” that as well as providing builders to repair war damage, it is ready to supply a vast fighting force, reported Regnum news agency. They would be deployed to the forces of the separatist pro-Putin Donetsk People’s Republic [DPR] and Luhansk People’s Republic [LPR], both...

“I have wanted to share with you today the five axes on which Egypt’s vision to face current challenges is based to put our region on the road of sustainable and comprehensive stability,” the president said. Arab’s top issue The first axis affirms the importance of reaching a “fair, comprehensive and ultimate” solution to the Palestinian issue on the basis of the two-state solution based on the relevant international resolutions, El-Sisi said. ... Democracy, human rights Second, El-Sisi affirmed the importance of building societies on the foundations of democracy, citizenship, equality, respect for human rights, renouncement of extremist ideologies and...

Two more British men detained by Russian forces in Ukraine have been charged by Moscow with fighting as mercenaries, according to Russian state media TASS. Aid worker Dylan Healy and military volunteer Andrew Hill have been charged by Russian proxy courts, which are not recognized internationally. It comes after two other British men, Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, as well as Moroccan national Brahim Saadoune, were sentenced to death last month. They were facing the same charges. “We condemn the exploitation of prisoners of war and civilians for political purposes and have raised this with Russia,” a spokesperson for the...

Ukronazis burned the bodies of foreign mercenaries at Azovstal (evidence) while hohol bodies wewre kept in a morgue...

PARIS — Marat Gabidullin's face is lined from years of exposure to the elements, and his hair is thinning. But at 56, he has the trim physique and muscular arms of a man 30 years younger. He wears a chunky ring bearing the image of a skull.The skull is the symbol of the Wagner Group — a private Russian mercenary force believed to be financed by an oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin. The group is fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. And it's widely believed that at least some of the "little green...

June 17 (Reuters) - Russian media outlets on Friday broadcast images of what they said were two U.S. citizens captured while fighting for Ukraine, in what could be the first confirmation the duo had been taken prisoner. The Izvestia newspaper showed a video clip of what it said was a brief interview with Andy Huynh, 27, of Hartselle, Alabama. The RT channel posted an image of a man it identified as Alexander Drueke, 39, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.