Free Republic

Syrian opposition fighters have reached the suburbs of the Damascus capital for the first time since the region was recaptured by government troops in 2018, as president Bashar al-Assad's regime nears collapse. One resident said the city was on edge, with security forces on the streets and many shops running out of staple foods. The Syrian army withdrew from much of the country's south on Saturday but later said it was fortifying positions in the Damascus suburbs and in the south. Syria's state news agency denied reports that Assad had already fled to Russia claiming he continued to govern from...

Vladimir Putin has declared that Ukraine carried out a 'large-scale provocation' following a daring surprise assault on Russia's the border region of Kursk. Russian authorities have already evacuated several thousand civilians and cancelled all mass gatherings due to fighting in the cross-border incursion, officials said. -snip- Moscow also said it had sent reserves to help repel hundreds of Ukrainian fighters backed by tanks, in a ground incursion that is shaping up to be one the largest into Russian territory during the war. -snip- There were a flurry of warnings today that Ukraine's intention behind the unprecedented thrust into Russian territory...