Free Republic

Has land for peace ever worked — even lately? We’ll get to that in a moment, but first let’s look at a critical moment in the Russian offensive in Donbas. If Putin wants to force a face-saving settlement, he needs to win a decisive battle to secure an area that he, um, largely controlled by proxy before the invasion. Reuters casts the ongoing battle on the Siverskiy Donets river as Putin’s last, best hope to get out with some claim of victory:The decisive battles of the war’s latest phase are still raging further south, where Moscow is attempting to seize...

Let the record show that Russia may see cutting off its future revenues as a lesser price to pay than denting Vladimir Putin’s ego. And that could very well be a rational calculation, given the tremendously destabilizing impact that a humiliation in Ukraine would likely produce. However, the humiliations stacking up on the other side of the equation carry a cost too, sometimes literally : Russia will cut natural gas supplies to Finland on Saturday, according to Finland’s state energy provider, the latest salvo in a growing confrontation between the two countries over the war in Ukraine. Finland this week...

Let the hunt for scapegoats begin! In the wake of repeated military disasters in his “special military operation” in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has begun a sweeping purge of his top ranking commanders, the UK’s Defence Ministry announced today. This confirms ongoing rumors that Putin’s playing musical chairs in an effort to reverse a series of humiliations at the hands of Volodymyr Zelensky and his surprising home army... (snip) So who’s out so far? 1) Lt. Gen. Serhiy Kisel relieved of command from 1st Guards Tank Army for the loss of the battle of Kharkiv 2) Vice Admiral Igor Osipov relieved...