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The invasion of Ukraine is the deadliest conflict for Russia since the Second World War, the British government says, as it places the “likely” death toll for Russian Federation forces at a quarter of a million so far. Russia is “likely” to have taken 900,000 casualties in all since it renewed its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and between 200,000 and 250,000 of those are fatalities, an intelligence digest from Britain’s Ministry of Defence has said. The review of Russia’s combat casualties so far come as U.S. President Donald Trump places clear emphasises on ending what he calls the “killing...

U.S. sanctions are causing delays in Russian crude oil deliveries, with many tankers struggling to reach their final destinations. A significant number of tankers loaded with Russian oil, particularly from Sakhalin Island, are experiencing prolonged sea voyages. Buyers, especially India, are avoiding sanctioned tankers, leading to logistical challenges and a reshuffling of the supply chain. ... Tankers continue to load crude oil from Russia but many of these are seeing difficulty in delivering the cargo to ports as buyers avoid supply chain sanctioned by the United States, ... Deliveries from Russia’s Arctic projects are also being delayed by weeks as...

Did you know that the European Union has sent more money to Russia in payment for petroleum products than they have provided aid to Ukraine. You read that right: the EU is funding both sides of the war. ... EU imports of Russian fossil fuels in the third year of the invasion surpassed the EUR 18.7 bn of financial aid they sent to Ukraine in 2024 ... All the virtue signaling from European leaders about standing with Ukraine is completely belied by this. They all continue to trade with Russia and import oil, gas, and coal. If they were really...

Saddam Hussein's government provided senior Russian officials with oil rights worth millions of dollars under the oil-for-food program in an effort to lift U.N. sanctions against Iraq, according to a U.S. Senate Committee report released on Monday. The oil allocations were "compensation for support," Vice President Taha Yasin Ramadan told the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The report, based on documents as well as interviews with Ramadan and Tareq Aziz, the former deputy prime minister, pointed to Alexander Voloshin, former chief of staff to President Vladimir Putin in the Russian Presidential Council, and ultranationalist parliamentarian Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Both men had...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to President Trump’s latest rebuke, calling out Trump for living in a Russian “disinformation space.” “Unfortunately, President Trump, I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for, the American people who always support us, unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,” Zelensky told reporters early Wednesday. His claim follows Trump’s news conference from his Mar-a-Lago resort Tuesday evening, where he criticized the Ukrainian leader and claimed his approval ratings were low. Zelensky also pressed Trump and U.S. officials to “be more truthful.” The request follows a high-stakes...

BRUSSELS (AP) – NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned on Thursday that a Russian victory over Ukraine would undermine the dissuasive force of the world´s biggest military alliance and that its credibility could cost trillions to restore. NATO has been ramping up its forces along its eastern flank with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, deploying thousands of troops and equipment to deter Moscow from expanding its war into the territory of any of the organization´s 32 member countries. “If Ukraine loses then to restore the deterrence of the rest of NATO again, it will be a much, much higher price than what...

DOJ official Bruce Ohr called a meeting of several federal agencies to discuss ‘working with’ a Russian oligarch because of his belief, premised on the unverified Steele dossier, that Trump was corrupt. A previously unnoticed passage in Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report on federal surveillance abuse suggests Bruce Ohr and his compatriots were willing to bargain with a Russian oligarch to take down Donald Trump.Two-hundred-plus pages into the IG report, while discussing former Associate Deputy Attorney General Ohr’s continued contacts with Crossfire Hurricane dossier author Christopher Steele, Horowitz revealed a significant detail that to date has been overlooked: “On December...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces are bypassing a key stronghold in eastern Ukraine that they have fought for months to capture and are focusing instead on cutting supply lines to it, a Ukrainian official said Monday. Russian troops are going around the vital logistics hub of Pokrovsk, where a steadfast Ukrainian defense has kept them at bay, and are taking aim at a highway that leads from there to the central Ukraine city of Dnipro, Maj. Viktor Trehubov, a local Ukrainian army spokesperson, told The Associated Press. That route is crucial for supplies feeding Ukrainian forces in the entire...

A University of Pennsylvania Professor is being slammed for sharing social media posts celebrating the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the school's connection to the crime. Alumni Luigi Mangione, 26, was arrested on Monday and charged with murder for the December 4 slaying. Assistant Professor of English and Cinema & Media Studies Julia Alekseyeva, who described herself as a 'socialist and ardent antifascist' on her website, made several posts embracing Mangione. In a since-deleted TikTok, Alekseyeva is smiling as the Les Miserables song 'Do You Hear the People Sing?' played. 'Have never been prouder to be a professor...

A German military helicopter was fired upon by a Russian ship in the Baltic Sea, the latest escalation in tensions between Moscow and the West, a report in German media states. A Bundeswehr (Federal German armed forces) helicopter was shot at by a Russian ship in the Baltic Sea with a signalling flare, the German Press Agency (DPA) has said. When this event is alleged to have taken place has not been made clear, but Deutsche Welle states the Russian ship responsible for the dangerous act was a “tanker”. A signal flare launcher is generally a gun in the conventional...

DABROWKA, Poland (AP) – Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk traveled Saturday to his country’s border with the Russian region of Kaliningrad to inspect progress in the construction of military fortifications along the eastern frontier, calling it “an investment in peace.” Tusk´s visit comes a month before Poland is to take over the rotating presidency of the 27-member European Union. Polish officials say their priority is to urge Europeans to beef up defenses at a time of Russian aggression and with change coming soon in Washington. Some European leaders are concerned that the incoming administration of Donald Trump might be less...

A former congressional candidate was charged over allegations that he threatened to dispatch a hit squad to murder his political opponent while he was running against Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) William Braddock, 41, of St. Petersburg, Fla. is accused of making the alleged threats on June 8, 2021 — including one where he threatened to “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” to take out his rival. Prosecutors did not outright name the victim, but at the time, he was vying against fellow Republican Luna and he was allegedly caught on audio calling the lawmaker a “dead squirrel” and “a...

President Biden reiterated the United States’s support for Ukraine as it deals with the recent “horrific” Russian attack. “Overnight, Russia carried out a horrific aerial attack against Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities report that Russia launched nearly 200 missiles and drones against Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure, depriving Ukrainian civilians of access to electricity,” Biden said in a statement. Biden said the recent attack, which occurred as the United States prepared for its Thanksgiving holiday, was outrageous and is another reminder of the importance of supporting Ukraine. Biden said his administration has “for months” been working to help Ukraine increase its resilience...

A Russian strike on energy infrastructure in western Ukraine on Thursday left more than 1 million people without power, according to local officials. Electricity was knocked out for more than 500,000 households in the Lviv region due to the attack, according to regional Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi. Rivne Gov. Oleksandr Koval said the strike also cut off power for more than 280,000 households in the region, The Associated Press reported. “The Commander of the Air Force, along with the Ministers of Internal Affairs and Energy, provided reports regarding the aftermath of the latest Russian strike targeting our energy infrastructure,” Ukrainian President...

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended the gas deals she made with Russia saying they helped German firms and kept the peace with Moscow, revealing the strategy in her memoir Freedom, released in 30 languages on Tuesday. Merkel’s spirited defence of her actions and central role in European geopolitics were clearly made to challenge those who accused of having been too soft on Russia, leaving Germany dangerously reliant on cheap Russian gas, and sparking turmoil with her much-maligned open door migrant policy from 2015 onwards.

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...

Moscow’s ambassador to Britain asserted that the United Kingdom is now “directly involved” in the war in Ukraine after Kyiv used British-made Storm Shadow long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia. In the wake of outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden’s reported decision to allow Ukraine to use American long-range ballistic missiles to attack the Russian interior, London was seemingly quick to follow suit, with reports this week that Kyiv used UK-made Storm Shadows to hit targets in the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukrainian forces waged a surprise counter-invasion over the summer.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war. The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.” Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday’s Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro.

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) said DNI nominee Tulsi Gabbard is “someone who is likely a Russian asset,” and “considered to be, essentially, by most assessments, a Russian asset.” Wasserman Schultz said, “Tulsi Gabbard is someone who has met with war criminals, violated the Department of State’s guidance, and secretly, clandestinely, went to Syria and met with Assad, who gassed and attacked his own people with chemical weapons. She’s considered to be, essentially, by most assessments, a Russian asset. And would be the most dangerous –.”

French authorities arrested Russian-born dual UAE-French citizen Pavel Durov last weekend as he disembarked his private plane in Paris. Durov, who is the CEO and founder of popular messaging app Telegram, faces a number of serious charges from French authorities ranging from drug offenses to child sexual exploitation offenses.Of course, none of these charges have anything to do with Durov directly but rather refer to activity that allegedly occurred on Telegram, Durov’s privacy-focused messaging app that boasts nearly 1 billion active users. It is unclear from the charging documents what exactly the French authorities’ argument is regarding Durov’s culpability, and...