Free Republic

Vladimir Putin's hopes of a swift victory in Ukraine have been dealt a major blow after a key weapon is proving to be a major flop -snip- Yet one area where Ukraine's military appears to hold the upper hand over their bitter foes is in drone warfare. In a recent Telegram post, a pro-Kremlin military blogger described the fighting round the eastern town of Chasiv Yar, where fierce battles are raging The blogger, whose moniker is "Two Majors", said Putin's army was handicapped by the poor performance of their first-person view (FPV) drones. He said that most of the Russian...

Russia is "extremely concerned" about what is happening in the Gaza Strip, head of Tatarstan region Rustam Minnikhanov said on Tuesday. "Our country is extremely concerned about the worsening situation in the Middle East, the bloody fighting in the Gaza Strip, the numerous victims, and the huge humanitarian disaster there," Minnikhanov said, speaking at a meeting of the Russia-Islamic World group in Moscow. Russia insists on the implementation of the decisions of the UN Security Council, first of all, for the establishment of an independent sovereign Palestinian state, he emphasized. Minnikhanov also condemned the actions of burning of holy Quran...

This is the shocking moment a Ukrainian missile destroyed a £260mn Russian spy plane over Krasnodar on the second anniversary of Putin's bloody invasion. Video showed huge plumes of smoke billowing from the wreckage after the A-50U reconnaissance plane's wing was reportedly torn off by a hit from a revamped S-200 Soviet-era long-range air defence missile - a staggering blow to Russia's already diminishing collection. Ten crew were reported to have been found dead at the crash site in Russia's Krasnodar region, where the dictator's official Black Sea residence and private £1 billion place are located. The eventual toll is...

Ukrainian drones hit a major Russian steel factory overnight, causing a large fire, a Kyiv source said on Saturday, on the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The governor of Russia’s Lipetsk region identified the plant as one in the city of Lipetsk, some 400 km (250 miles) north of the Ukrainian border, that is responsible for about 18 percent of Russian steel output. He said a fire apparently caused by a drone strike had been extinguished at the plant, operated by Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk (NLMK), and there had been no casualties. The Ukrainian source told Reuters the...

Despite hefty government spending on social benefits, Finland tops global economies. Second in a three-part series. HELSINKI, FINLAND – Fifty years ago, Finland was known for little more than the wood pulp from its endless forests. A poverty-stricken land of poorly educated loggers and farmers on the edge of the Arctic Circle, few paid it any attention. Today, this small Nordic nation boasts a thriving hi-tech economy ranked the most competitive in the world, the best educated citizenry of all the industrialized countries, and a welfare state that has created one of the globe's most egalitarian societies. Envious policymakers from...