Free Republic

Heavy fighting erupted in areas near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine after Kyiv warned it might have to shut down the plant to avoid a radiation disaster. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in its daily update on Thursday that some villages near the plant were bombed over the past 24 hours by “tanks, mortars, barrel and jet artillery”. Overnight, Russian forces fired rockets and heavy artillery into the nearby town of Nikopol four times, the area’s regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, wrote on Telegram, damaging at least 11 houses and other buildings. On Wednesday,...

Ukrainian officials, defending their country against Russian aggressors, began doing something in July that seemed odd, even counterintuitive: They started speaking loudly and regularly about their plans to liberate Kherson—a key southern city that Russia seized only a week after invading Ukraine on February 24. Indeed, the Ukrainians telegraphed their intentions in a way that the Russians could not mistake. This was like waving a red cape at an angry, incompetent bull. Almost immediately, rumors proliferated that the Russians were racing reinforcements to Kherson to prepare for the Ukrainian attack. Goading the Russians into doing so seems to have been...

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made an unscheduled visit to Kyiv on Thursday as the Biden administration announced major new military aid worth more than $2 billion for Ukraine and other European countries threatened by Russia. In meetings with senior Ukrainian officials, Blinken said the Biden administration had notified Congress of its intent to provide $2 billion in long-term Foreign Military Financing to Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including NATO members and regional security partners, that are “most potentially at risk for future Russian aggression.” Pending expected congressional approval, about $1 billion of that will go to Ukraine...

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update on Sunday that Russian forces in Ukraine have likely not received combat bonuses, hampering morale. “Russian forces continue to suffer from morale and discipline issues in Ukraine,” the ministry said in a Twitter thread. “In addition to combat fatigue and high casualties, one of the main grievances from deployed Russian soldiers probably continues to be problems with their pay.” It said that Russian troops receive a modest salary and a variety of bonuses and allowances, noting the combat bonuses have not been paid since the beginning of the invasion...

The pace of fighting is intensifying as the war in Ukraine stretches into its seventh month, with Ukraine seeking to exploit Russian weaknesses in the south and Moscow signaling that it might reinforce its troops in the east to renew its stalled campaign. Ukraine’s military has imposed sweeping restrictions on journalists as its forces mount a counteroffensive to retake territory seized by Russia in the south of the country. The Russians have leaped into the void, trying to characterize the counteroffensive — one week in — as a failure, without providing evidence to support the claims. “The Russian presentation of...

A 9-year-old boy was killed and at least 10 people were seriously injured in a Russian rocket strike in the southern Ukrainian town of Zelenodolsk as Ukrainian forces have pushed their counteroffensive in the south of the country. The news of the rocket strike Saturday came as a report from Conflict Armament Research, an independent armed conflict investigation group based in Britain, revealed that Russia has been using outdated foreign technology in its advanced missiles systems and helicopters. Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk province, said in a statement to Telegram that Russian forces fired Uragan rockets at Zelenodolsk...

The United States has determined that Russia is suffering "severe manpower shortages" in its six-month-old war with Ukraine and has become more desperate in its efforts to find new troops to send to the front lines, according to a new American intelligence finding disclosed Wednesday. Russia is looking to address the shortage of troops in part by compelling soldiers wounded earlier in the war to return to combat, recruiting personnel from private security companies and even recruiting from prisons, according to a U.S. official who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss the downgraded intelligence finding....

Government forces in Ukraine are trying to seize the initiative from Russian troops before the arrival of winter. A counter-offensive is already under way in the south and the Ukrainians are now preparing to expand that in the east to take back land lost in Donbas and around Kharkiv in the north. Quentin Sommerville and camera-journalist Darren Conway have been given exclusive access to a unit of Ukrainian troops. The air is thick with the smell of burning sunflowers, and the pat-pat-pat of Russian cluster bombs can be heard landing across the fields, setting fire to a crop which stands,...

Russian forces are reportedly delaying international nuclear safety officials from entering the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Shelling on multiple days last week had hit an area of the plant located just 100 meters or so from the reactor buildings. Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), repeatedly called for an IAEA mission to the plant so experts can assess the damage and evaluate working conditions of the Ukrainian staff continuing to keep the facility operational. Earlier on Wednesday, an IAEA team set off from the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Reuters reporting the team were...

Uncertainty hangs over the planned visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant by a team from the UN nuclear watchdog, as inspectors arrived in Ukrainian-controlled Zaporizhzhia city on Wednesday, where they are likely to spend the night before crossing the frontline. The International Atomic Energy Agency mission into Russian-controlled territory, which comprises representatives from countries deemed neutral by both sides, was reportedly intended to last four days. But on Wednesday, the Russian-occupying authorities said the IAEA would be given access for one day. They also said the mission would be expected to join the queue of civilians who cross back and...