Free Republic

When President Biden proposed an additional $24 billion in supplemental funding for Ukraine in August, Moscow spin doctors working for the Kremlin were ready to try to undermine public support for the bill, internal Kremlin documents show. In an ongoing campaign that seeks to influence congressional and other political debates to stoke anti-Ukraine sentiment, Kremlin-linked political strategists and trolls have written thousands of fabricated news articles, social media posts and comments that promote American isolationism, stir fear over the United States’ border security and attempt to amplify U.S. economic and racial tensions, according to a trove of internal Kremlin documents...

Russia destroyed the largest power-generating plant in Ukraine’s Kyiv region in a missile attack on Thursday, as President Volodomyr Zelensky accused the West of “turning a blind eye” to his country’s need for more air defenses. Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down 18 of the incoming missiles and 39 of the drones. Russia fired 82 missiles and drones in total, including six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles – none of which Ukraine’s air defenses were able to down.

Russia’s highest investigative body announced on Tuesday that it has launched an official criminal probe into senior officials in the United States and other NATO countries who are suspected of financing terrorism acts. According to The Moscow Times, Russia’s Investigative Committee, which is the primary federal investigating authority of Russia, has accused U.S. Senior officials, NATO members, and the Hunter Biden-linked Bursima Holdings of financing terror attacks that have occurred both inside and outside of Russia. The statement was made in a video released by the Committee but did not refer to a specific terror attack. The Investigative Committee’s probe...

Go West, young man – that American slogan [3] of the mid-19th century is not an idea the Ukrainian men of Odessa, Kharkov, Dniepropetrovsk, Poltava and Sumy can contemplate today as long as the danger of press ganging into the army in Kiev and Lvov is a higher risk to their lives than staying put in the eastern cities as they collapse. They must calculate that they are better off trying to do without electricity in the east, and wait for the Kremlin to suspend the campaign – as it did during 2023 – or for the Russian General Staff...

As Russia steps up airstrikes and once again advances on the battlefield in Ukraine more than two years into its bloody invasion, there is no end to the fighting in sight. And President Volodymyr Zelensky’s options for what to do next — much less how to win the war — range from bad to worse. Zelensky has said Ukraine will accept nothing less than the return of all its territory, including land that Russia has controlled since 2014. But with the battle lines changing little in the last year, militarily retaking the swaths of east and south Ukraine that Russia...

Poland’s top climate official said the country is preparing to set a date for a complete phase-out of coal-fired power generation, just months after the nation elected a new government that has pledged to support environmental policies of the European Union (EU). ... Poland, which currently receives about 70% of its electricity from burning coal, and has long been Europe’s largest producer of the fuel, has been slowly increasing its use of solar and wind power. ... Urszula Zielinska, the country’s Secretary of State for Climate, during a meeting in Brussels, Belgium on Jan. 15, said, “Only with an end...

The electric war, which in its first phase commenced in September 2022, has now entered its second and final phase – final, that is, for the Ukraine. This is strategic; war has never been fought like this in Europe. The US and NATO general staffs and politicians have been taken by complete surprise. “The Ukrainians are building Maginot and Siegfried lines according to the instructions of their foreign advisers,” according to a Moscow analyst, “as if the Russian offensive will be men, artillery and tanks running across the landscape towards Kiev. But they won’t have to. The offensive against Ukrainian...

Nato must be ready for Russia launching an “existential” war against the Baltic states “masked by a blizzard of disinformation”, ambassadors from the three countries have warned. Writing exclusively for The Sunday Telegraph, the top diplomats to the UK from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said that Russia could “pivot quickly” from Ukraine to invade the Baltic. And they said that Vladimir Putin’s brutalisation of Ukraine is evoking the three countries’ “darkest memories” of occupation under Stalin. The Estonian ambassador Viljar Lubi, the Latvian ambassador Ivita Burmistre, and Lithuania’s charge d’affaire Lina Zigmantaite, wrote the joint article to mark Friday’s 20...

It is not reported whether UMPC control modules will be installed on them. The Russians began mass production of three-ton FAB-3000 aerial bombs . This was reported to the Russian Ministry of Defense following the results of Minister Sergei Shoigu’s trip to the enterprises of the military-industrial complex in the Nizhny Novgorod region. “Sergei Shoigu was informed that mass production of FAB-3000 has been organized at the enterprise since February of this year,” the Russian department said in a statement.

Ukrainians living in regions illegally annexed by Russia are being coerced to vote in the presidential election of their wartime occupier, Vladimir Putin — an exercise denounced by Ukraine as an illegitimate effort by Moscow to tighten control over its neighbor. Polls don't open in Russia until Friday, but they are open in four annexed regions of Ukraine close to the front line, some of which are not fully in Putin’s control. *snip* In the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, said his city was a symbol of Russia’s “military nightmare” and of an “electoral process in...

Russia went to war in Ukraine two years ago with twice as many artillery pieces as Ukraine had. But it isn’t the advantage in howitzers that really matters – it’s the advantage in shells. The Czechs found, for Ukraine, nearly a million shells precisely when Ukraine needed those million shells the most: at the peak of Russia’s winter offensive. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Czech artillery initiative probably saved entire Ukrainian cities, by giving the Ukrainian army the firepower to resist a much bigger Russian army. It’s no secret how Ukraine got into an artillery bind late...

For the first time as a member of NATO, Sweden is participating in a military exercise, and members of its armed forces told Newsmax they were glad finally to be a part of the Western military alliance. On Thursday, Sweden became the 32nd member of NATO, two years after it applied following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The once-neutral nation is participating in Nordic Response, a training exercise involving more than 20,000 soldiers from 14 countries, including the U.S., which began Monday in the Arctic extremes of Norway, Finland, and Sweden and runs through March 14.

Deliveries of all-new Russian aircraft have been delayed by two years due to safety concerns ... The publication said that, for example, the weight of the new MS-21 passenger aircraft has increased by 5.75 tons, compared to the previous version, which used foreign components and Western engines. This means its flight range and altitude have been significantly reduced. One of Kommersant's sources said that, if Russia is unable to reduce the weight of the aircraft, it will be impossible for authorities to make the plane achieve the desired performance characteristics. "It's impossible to increase engine thrust by 20 percent," the...

The growing ties between Tehran and Moscow come as Iran has increased its military activity against Israel through attacks by its proxy groups: Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. Russia is deepening its ties with global forces of destabilization, chiefly Iran, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, told the General Assembly on Monday. Erdan's comments came ahead of the parley Moscow is holding this week with Palestinian factions, including Hamas. “This week, Russia will be hosting a Hamas delegation in Moscow! And not for the first time!” Erdan told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, which...

Who are the 10% of people who believe the Ukraine can win a war with Russia? I guess we should be celebrating – two years ago, a majority thought this was a reasonable proposition. It was always very incredible to me. I kept saying “bro, have you seen a map? Russia is like, a lot bigger than the Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian Air Force said its fighters on Friday shot down a Russian A-50 military spy plane, the second of the prized aircraft that Kyiv has claimed to destroy this year. The Beriev A-50 is an airborne early warning and control jet used by Russia to help monitor Ukraine's air defenses. The aircraft typically fly with a crew of up to 15 personnel and are estimated to cost over $300 million to produce. According to Russian and Ukrainian reports, an A-50 was brought down over the Sea of Azov late Friday. Kyiv officials took credit for the jet's destruction, although...

Russian Economy In Chaos After Major Bank Collapses | Breaking News With The Enforcer The Enforcer 160K subscribers 2-22-2024 3:30 p.m. EST 10:40 Minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U59dftqGGs4 Russia announces that they will begin to open Gulags for Ukrainians living in occupied territories that wish for the Ukrainian army to liberate the area they live in. A major Russian bank collapsed overnight leading to large tremors being felt throughout the Russian economy. The Russians have begun a new multi pronged offensive in the northeast in an attempt to regain the land lost in the late summer of 2022.

Ivan Sechin, the son of Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, died on February 5 at the age of 35, it has been reported. -snip- The VChK-OGPU outlet, which purports to have inside information from Russian security forces, also reported on Sechin's death. Citing an unnamed source, it said that at approximately 4.30 a.m. on February 5, Sechin "complained that he felt bad and was suffocating." "The man fell on the bed and lost consciousness. Those around him carried Ivan to the floor and tried to provide primary resuscitation measures," the Telegram channel said, adding that an ambulance...

Russian authorities are detaining people mourning the death of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. He died in custody at an Arctic Circle penal colony late last week. Western leaders blame Russia.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Everything that is happening in the Ukrainian direction is a matter of life and death for Russia, it is the fate of the country, whereas for the West it is only a matter of their tactical position, Russian President Vladimir Putin said. "I think that for ourselves, and even more so for listeners and viewers abroad, it is important to understand the course of our thoughts, to understand our condition, to understand how sensitive and important this is for our country — everything that is happening in the Ukrainian direction. For them [the West], this is an...