Free Republic

Russian, Ukrainian, and Western sources observed on April 1 that the Russian winter offensive has failed to achieve the Kremlin’s goals of seizing the Donetsk and Luhansk oblast administrative borders by March 31. Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov had announced on December 22 that Russian forces were focusing most of their efforts on seizing Donetsk Oblast, and Russian forces launched their winter offensive operation in early February along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna-Lyman line and on select frontlines in western Donetsk Oblast. The UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) observed that Gerasimov has failed to extend Russian control over Donbas during...

Putin’s reluctance to take risks directly related to his conventional war in Ukraine indicates that he remains highly unlikely to pursue nuclear escalation or war with NATO. ISW previously assessed that Russian conventional war threats against NATO do not correspond with Russia’s capabilities and that Russia uses nuclear threats primarily to intimidate the West.[23] Putin evidently values his domestic status quo and seeks to avoid risky and controversial policies to support his own aims. Putin also continues to demonstrate that he remains a calculated individual who places considerable emphasis on eliminating risks—even while his perception of the situation he faces...

Let’s debunk the biggest fake widely used by kremlin to justify the russian invasion in Ukraine. You hear it from russian media, you read it in the commentaries left by russian bots, but what do the official numbers say? Let’s check out the report of the OHCHR that russians themselves are often referring to. ----- InformNapalm’s database of russian regular units identified in Donbas between 2014-2021: https://informnapalm.org/db/russian-aggression/#lang=en&page=m_unit ----- StopFake’s investigation on the staged russian shelling in Donietsk:https://www.stopfake.org/en/fake-ukrainian-military-shelled-bus-station-in-donetsk/ ----- Bellingcat’s research on russian artillery shelling Ukrainian forces across the border in 2014:https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/02/17/origin-of-artillery-attacks/The research on russian propagandists forging videos:https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/02/17/origin-of-artillery-attacks/Debunking dubious footage forged...