Free Republic

Vladimir Putin 'regrets' triggering a full-scale war costing hundreds of thousands of lives, his closest international ally has claimed. Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko said: 'We haven't talked about it, but I know him well. 'Putin didn't expect it would turn into such a war.' The close Putin crony told interviewer Mario Nawfal on X: 'When he saw a huge number of people dying, Putin instantly agreed to the negotiations to stop the conflict.' This was earlier in the war, in 2022, and, Lukashenko claimed, Putin was ready to negotiate 'on NATO, on demilitarisation, on denazification', as he described it, 'on...

Starlink slowed down for a couple days in Ukraine so a bunch of Europeans and a bunch of Democrats have declared that Elon Musk is the most evil person to ever live. "Elon is the worst human being ever." "As soon as our technology catches up to Elon's, we will boycott his products!" "SpaceX and Starlink are dead!" Look at you fools go. All because Elon allegedly didn't do everything in his power to help Ukraine. Wait until you dumb f*cks hear about your hero, Barack Obama. After Putin annexed Crimea and moved 30,000 troops to the Ukrainian border, Obama...

My decision on Russia is a very simple one. I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table. Great progress is being made, and that includes current hostage negotiations! Signing that document at this time will do that, and I can sign it later, or any time that I want! Perhaps more importantly, Russia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what they could be doing, and I want to...

The French government has accused the far-left of stoking the riots that engulfed the nation on Saturday, resulting in widespread clashes with police, looting of shops, as well as vandalism and arson of government buildings. What began last month as a small protest over teacher shortages at a school in the Créteil suburb of Paris has become a full-on national revolt, with various leftist unions and other organisations also taking to the streets in cities across the country on Saturday, with an estimated 550,000 demonstrators. At a press conference in Paris, Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez said that unlike...

The trial regarding Nord Stream is now beginning in Germany. Do you remember the fall of 2022? Every single politician and "expert" in Swedish and Western media ran themselves ragged trying to explain that Vladimir Putin had blown up his own gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. That was the only narrative that was permitted, and questioning it was immediately branded as "Russian propaganda." Now the trial is starting in Germany. And who is standing trial? A Ukrainian ex-officer, suspected of involvement in the sabotage, while German prosecutors link the operation directly to Ukrainian authorities and classify the attack as...

The Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, has repeatedly said that the fall of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine is inevitable and will happen faster than Kyiv thinks. Recent trends on the battlefield paint a different picture. A monthslong Ukrainian counteroffensive in the northern part of the Donbas has thwarted Russian efforts to encircle the remaining Ukrainian-controlled cities in the region. Russia, Western analysts say, has lost dozens of square miles of territory during the Ukrainian campaign, which Kyiv is calling Operation Vivaldi. In the southern Donbas, Russia continues to mount furious assaults to break through Ukrainian lines. But Kyiv...

Shenghua Wen, 42, received around $2 million (€1.7 million) from North Korean officials to ship firearms and ammunition from California. A Chinese national in California has been sentenced to eight years in prison for shipping firearms and ammunition to North Korea. North Korean officials paid Shenghua Wen around $2 million (€1.7 million) to ship two containers of weapons and other items from Long Beach in California to North Korea via Hong Kong in 2023, according to the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles. The 42-year-old pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic...

Russia is not Iran. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev directed this reminder to President Donald Trump on Monday in a social media post. Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, issued what appears to be a not-so-veiled threat in response to Trump’s recent announcement that he has changed his mind about how long he’ll give Russia to strike a peace deal with Ukraine before leveling secondary sanctions against the Kremlin. On Monday, Trump reduced the previous 50-day deadline to “10 or 12” days, prompting Medvedev’s response. “Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step...

Russia has warned NATO it would be ready to resort to nuclear ​weapons if the Western alliance attempted to cut off Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave that borders the Baltic Sea. In a document sent to NATO ‌and seen by Reuters, Moscow accused the alliance of a "dangerous and reckless course" that entailed "high risks of the outbreak of a direct armed conflict". The document said this included the possibility of "Russian strikes against decision-making centers in the alliance's member states right from the outset". "Russia will be ready to use the entire arsenal of forces and capabilities at its disposal,...

The FBI is searching the Delmar home of ex-UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter in connection with a federal investigation. A NewsChannel 13 photographer captured video of agents searching and taking pictures of both cars at the property on Dover Drive. Agency spokeswoman Sarah Ruane confirmed that they were searching the home, but would not provide details on the investigation – per standard policy.

At least two people have been killed and six injured in a "massive" overnight Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region, Governor Andrei Vorobyev has said. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 450 drones heading for the capital had been shot down in what he called an "unprecedented attack". The city's main oil refinery was damaged and several homes were set ablaze. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Kyiv had hit a "key" Russian oil facility and a logistics site in the region, representing "billions of dollars that sustain the war machine". The overnight attack is thought to be among the largest...

The Iran and Ukraine wars have exposed the world’s reliance on the Middle East and Russia for diesel Persian Gulf states and Russia have invested tens of billions of dollars in refineries over the past decade to grab a bigger share of the global diesel market. Now, war in both regions has sent exports plunging, squeezing supplies of a fuel that powers much of the global economy. Diesel prices are soaring—they eclipsed $6 a gallon in the U.S. for the first time last week and have kept climbing, hitting $6.45 on Friday. The surge has rattled governments and markets around...

From the gun cabinet of his shooting range, Volodymyr Sukhomlyn pulls out a semiautomatic shotgun. **SNIP** Not an easy target “But more recently it’s been bus drivers and cabbies buying them, too — anyone who is out on the streets a lot.” One FPV attack this month injured several people at a supermarket, leaving the floor stained with blood. Another ploughed into the upper floors of a government building downtown. “I heard it coming and we had to hide in a shop when it exploded,” said Julia Sologub, 31. “It used to be just a problem for soldiers — now...

An elite group of Ukrainian drone operators is hunting Russians from desert dugouts across Africa, as Kyiv wages a proxy war to bleed strongman Vladimir Putin’s global army. Moscow has deployed about 5,000 troops across Mali, Sudan and Libya to back coup-installed military dictatorships and warlords since 2020 — as Putin has tried to fill the void left by Western forces’ withdrawal and assert himself as a power player — often in exchange for lucrative mining rights. And Ukraine has worked alongside local rebels to fight off those same Russians forces in an effort to forge new alliances against Moscow....

Fierce battles have raged in and around the city since May, when Russian forces launched a surprise attack across the border, opening a new front. -snip- The soldier was injured by a sniper and found himself holed up in the basement of a bombed-out building with other men from his unit, sheltering from persistent drone attacks. The only route to safety was along a 50-metre path under the fire control of Ukraine's army. "Fifty metres, no more say those who managed to cross that distance in our direction," he wrote in his blog. "The path is blocked by debris, construction...

Mothers and wives of mobilized men in Russia have called Vladimir Putin a liar and launched a campaign to get their sons and husbands back from the front line in Ukraine. A group calling itself The Way Home has built support in 29 cities across Russia since it was established three months ago and has now published a manifesto, accusing the Kremlin of betrayal.

Ratcliffe declassified an intel report revealing Ukrainian officials viewed Biden family business deals 'as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power' Then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2015 told the CIA he would "strongly prefer" an intelligence report documenting Ukrainian officials’ concerns with his family’s ties to "corrupt" business deals in the country "not be disseminated" — and so it wasn’t, according to a newly declassified email and records made public by the agency. CIA Director John Ratcliffe declassified the heavily redacted records, which he said he believes is an example of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes Ukraine may not endure the upcoming winter, and is therefore unlikely to return to the negotiating table before at least mid-March, according to the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, Serhii Kyslytsya. Kyslytsya made the remarks in an interview with Ukrinform on Thursday, Aug. 20, telling the news outlet that Moscow currently lacks motivation to enter negotiations and could see winter as an opportunity to weaken Ukrainian society. His comments came as Ukraine increasingly continues preparations across all sectors, particularly its air defenses, critical energy and water infrastructure, as well as residents for the...

Every August, the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Georgia is accompanied by familiar reflections about missed warning signs, intelligence failures, and a supposedly unexpected turning point in European security. The language has become so standardized that it obscures a far more uncomfortable reality. Georgia did not reveal a new Russia. It exposed a Russia that had been behaving consistently for nearly two decades while much of the West continued searching for evidence that Moscow had fundamentally changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Describing the failure to recognize this trajectory as a collection of mistakes understates what actually occurred....

Grok Summary of Video Transcript:Summary of MaxAfterBurner's Breaking News Video on B-52 Bombers and Venezuela TensionsIn this YouTube video dated around November 20, 2025, former fighter pilot Ryan (MaxAfterBurner) provides a real-time briefing on U.S. B-52 Stratofortress bombers reportedly heading south toward the Caribbean, potentially as a show of force amid escalating tensions with Venezuela's Maduro regime. He speculates on their mission, flight path, and role in a possible conflict, while analyzing target packages briefed to President Trump on November 18. The tone is informal, speculative, and pro-U.S. intervention, emphasizing regime change over endless war.Key Developments and ContextB-52 Deployment: Two...