Free Republic

U.S. and European officials are growing increasingly worried as hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. energy assistance previously pledged for Ukraine remain unreleased, even as a bone-cold winter pushes the nation's war‑damaged power grid to the brink, said several sources familiar with the matter. The funds in question were originally slated to be distributed by the U.S. Agency for ​International Development to help Ukraine import liquefied natural gas and rebuild energy infrastructure damaged by Russian strikes, said the sources, who include a U.S. official and a Ukrainian official. But after USAID was effectively shuttered in the ‌opening weeks of...

Ukraine is racing to reinforce its air defenses as a brief pause in Russian strikes on Kyiv and other cities approaches its expiration, and military and diplomatic experts warn the move may do little to change conditions on the battlefield and could strengthen Moscow’s negotiating position. Earlier Friday, President Donald Trump said at the White House, "I think we’re getting very close to getting a settlement," expressing optimism about the upcoming Russia-Ukraine talks. "Zelenskyy and Putin hate each other, and it makes it very difficult, but I think we have a good chance of getting it settled." The Kremlin said...

They've hung him upside down like a slab of meat. Stripped to his underwear. Arms bound tight with tape. Ankles lashed to a tree trunk in the open winter air. The second man, attached to a neighbouring tree, is at least taped upright. A man screams at them in Russian. He stuffs a fistful of snow into one of the men's mouths. Both cringe in terror, whimpering protestations and pleas. This is no medieval dungeon - it's the Russian army in Ukraine in the 21st century. The men's 'crime'? Refusing to walk, yet again, into what they call 'the meat...

Donald Trump said in 2016 to the Republican National Convention, “We must abandon the failed policy of nation-building and regime change.” Earlier this month, after the current administration launched a war against Venezuela and ousted—one might say changed the regime of—President Nicolás Maduro, Trump said, “We are going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition.” U.S.-led regime change in Venezuela seemed to fly in the face of Trump’s prior warnings against regime change wars. But the president’s defenders said this was a different kind of military operation, unlike the Iraq,...

"Ukraine saw a rare overnight lull in attacks on energy infrastructure after President Trump personally urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to pause strikes — but the Kremlin said Friday the brief reprieve will last only through Sunday. There were no overnight strikes on energy facilities in Ukraine after Trump called on Putin to spare them as frigid temperatures leave civilians in danger of freezing to death, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post to X. “Over the past night, there were no strikes on energy facilities,” Zelensky wrote. But that didn’t stop Moscow from continuing to hit other civilian...

I really respect Judge Andrew Napolitano. I love his "stable" of guests, especially Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski–you gotta love the lady. But when the Judge says that the ICE Officers who applied lethal force to civil conflict situations, "murdered" those who foolishly placed themselves in harm's way for no advantage to anyone, let's apply the Judge's own standards of judgment, as a Constitutional Expert. There is a customary spread of categories applied to homicides, condensed in this list of classifications, from intentional and pre-planned murder, negligent manslaughter, and justifiable self-defense. What would be the typical scenario for "murder" in a...

I took a few images from the 2 minute video for this post:Andrew Bridgen@ABridgenMore fraud uncovered in Ukraine a $3bn ‘redirect’ of aid for Ukraine linking the deputy prime minister who has been arrested, the EU and AstraZeneca. All ultimately benefiting Zelenskyy. You could not make this up - no wonder they want the war to continue. Please watch and share.Jan 29, 2026·

The Belgian troopship SS Léopoldville had just slipped beneath the English Channel after being hit by a torpedo. Gerald Howard went down with the ship. The 23-year-old rifleman nearly drowned under the frigid water like hundreds of his comrades. He fought his way back to the surface. "I was on the ship until it went down," Howard recalled decades later. "It pulled me down, and when I came up I saw a life raft. They said 'You can't get on.' I said, 'Like hell I can't.'" Howard woke up around midnight in a hospital in Cherbourg, France. He was among...

"In a big setback to Donald Trump's Ukraine peace efforts, Russia has hardened its stance on Donbas ahead of the tripartite talks in the United Arab Emirates. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reiterated Moscow's demand that Ukraine withdraw from the Donbas region. The Russian official's remark comes amid Trump saying that both Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky had agreed to a deal."

Volodymyr Zelenskyy dropped a barrage of truth bombs on his European allies about their collective failure to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin and be respected by his US counterpart, Donald Trump. Invoking the spectacle of Bill Murray's classic comedy, Groundhog Day, at a speech in Davos, the Ukrainian president said the UK and Europe are stuck in a doom loop, repeating rhetoric about what needs to be done - without taking the action required to make things change. This, he said, meant they were left scrambling to respond to world events instead of standing united as a great...

PARIS (AP) — France’s navy, working with intelligence provided by the United Kingdom, on Thursday intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that traveled from Russia, in a mission targeting the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet, officials said. French maritime authorities for the Mediterranean said the ship, the Grinch, is suspected of operating with a false flag. The French navy is escorting the ship to anchorage for more checks, the statement said. The tanker departed from the city of Murmansk in northwestern Russia, it said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that Europe is too reliant on the US for its security, as he questioned the response from NATO if Russia was to invade another European nation. “Europe needs united armed forces, forces that can truly defend Europe today,” he said during his speech in Davos. “Europe relies only on that belief that if danger comes, NATO will act, but no one has really seen the alliance in action.” He questioned who would respond if Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Lithuania or strike Poland. “Right now NATO exists thanks to the belief that the...

Collecting snow for water at home; sleeping in gloves, coats and hats; heating bricks on gas stoves for warmth; erecting tents indoors - Kyiv residents are doing everything they can to survive the coldest, darkest winter of the war. "When there is no electricity, there is no heating: it means the apartment freezes," said ​Anton Rybikov, father of three-year-old David and two-year-old Matvii, speaking to Reuters in their home, where he and his wife Marina have stocked up on backup batteries and sleeping bags. The 39-year-old military ‌chaplain said one of his sons recently contracted pneumonia after temperatures in the...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s latest drone and missile attacks had left more than one million consumers without electricity in Kyiv, with thousands of apartment blocks also losing heating during freezing winter temperatures. In a rare wartime admission, Zelenskyy criticised the performance of Ukraine’s air force against Russian Shahed drones, despite the availability of Western-supplied interceptors and F-16 fighter jets. Moscow has escalated strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, while Kyiv has urged Western allies to urgently deliver air defense missiles and military support.

Two people were ⁠killed and dozens more wounded in a mass Russian drone attack across Ukraine overnight, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday, as U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators hashed out a post-war plan in the latest round of ‍peace talks. Moscow has stepped up a winter campaign ‍of strikes on the Ukrainian energy system while also waging a battlefield offensive as Kyiv faces U.S. ⁠pressure to secure peace in the nearly four-year-old war. Zelenskyy said the Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa regions were ​targeted in an attack that included more than 200 drones. The military said 30 strikes...

The headmaster of Chicago’s tony Latin School will resign less than two weeks after it was revealed that students were rehearsing Nazi marching themes for the second year in a row. Dr. Thomas Hagerman revealed his plans to leave his job in a Jan. 14 email to the Latin School community which cited health issues as the reason for his exit. “This decision comes after a great deal of thoughtful deliberation. I have been repeatedly reminded about the importance of attending more intentionally to my health and overall sustainability,” Hagerman wrote*** The surprise resignation comes two weeks after middle schoolers...

Previously, Noble Capital RSD initiated legal proceedings demanding $225.8 billion based on alleged obligations under sovereign bonds issued during the Russian EmpireMOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. The filing of a lawsuit in a US court by the American firm Noble Capital RSD against Russia for a purported payment of $225.8 billion - claimed to be for "tsarist debts" - can be viewed as an act of "legal aggression" orchestrated by Russia’s adversaries, according to Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev, speaking to TASS. Previously, Noble Capital RSD initiated legal proceedings demanding the sum based on alleged obligations under sovereign bonds issued...

Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov says 200,000 soldiers are absent without official leave — AWOL — and that 2 million are "wanted" for avoiding military service. "I don't want to be a populist — I want to be a realist," Fedorov said. "The Ministry of Defense is coming into my hands with a [$6.9 billion] shortfall, 2 million Ukrainians who are wanted and 200,000 who are AWOL," Fedorov said Wednesday in an address to Parliament. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Fedorov, 34, at the start of the year. The former head of Ukraine's digital transformation policies is credited with spearheading the...

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia agreed with ⁠President Donald Trump that it was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not Russia, who was holding up a potential peace deal to end the war in Ukraine. Trump's assessment in an interview with Reuters contrasted that of European allies, who have consistently argued that Moscow has ‍little interest in ending the fighting and wants to take as much ‍territory as it can while seeking to stave off further Western sanctions. "I think he's ready to make a deal," Trump said ⁠of Putin when speaking to Reuters in the Oval Office on Wednesday....

Russia launched a second major drone and missile bombardment of Ukraine in four days, officials said Tuesday, aiming again at the power grid amid freezing temperatures in an apparent snub to U.S.-led peace efforts as Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor approaches the four-year mark. Russia fired almost 300 drones, 18 ballistic missiles and seven cruise missiles at eight regions overnight, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media. One strike in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed four people at a mail depot, and several hundred thousand households were without power in the Kyiv region, Zelensky said. The daytime temperature in...