Free Republic

Anastasiia Berezovska was wanted over the explosion targeting Ukrainian-born oligarch Vadim Ermolaev, 58. According to sources in the investigation speaking to Ukrainian news outlet Pravda, police discovered the 39-year-old’s body in Kyiv, at around 11pm on Monday night. She had been shot. Berezovska was wanted on suspicion of attempted murder, placing an explosive device on a public road with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy. Investigators said a device, concealed within a bag, was detonated remotely once the intended victims were in range near their apartment in Monaco. Two suspects were detained after her body was discovered, including a serving military...

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s debt-fuelled spending not seen since Germany reunification. Germany plans to borrow more than €800bn by 2030, breaking with decades of fiscal restraint to bring defence spending to levels not seen since the cold war. Next year alone, Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government plans to raise more than €200bn from markets, 12.5 per cent more than this year, the finance ministry said on Monday. Between 2027 and 2030, Germany is expected to borrow about €838bn, according to projections. The budget marks a sharp break with the country’s deep-rooted aversion to debt and with Merz’s own party line on fiscal...

In brief: Czech opposition party SPD has called for Ukraine’s Zelensky to be stripped of the Order of the White Lion, the country's highest state decoration, following a similar decision from Poland after Kyiv named a military unit after a controversial WWII military formation that Warsaw viewed as responsible for massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. A Czech opposition party has proposed stripping Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of the Czech Republic’s highest state honor, arguing it “cannot stay silent” after Kyiv named a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). According to Ceske Noviny on Tuesday, the...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched waves of missiles and drones targeting Kyiv overnight into Monday that killed at least seven people, authorities said, hours after Ukraine’s president warned that another large-scale attack was imminent.Another 24 were wounded, said Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration in a post on Telegram.A residential building in the Podilskyi district partially collapsed, he said. In the Darnytsia district, several multistory buildings were damaged and people were believed to be trapped under the rubble. “These are residential buildings. Places where people slept and lived their ordinary lives,” he said. The attack, which was...

Russia has begun using a new autonomous version of its Molniya strike drone in Ukraine, adapting the cheap fixed-wing attack UAV to hit targets without the control antenna that made earlier models vulnerable to electronic warfare, Defence Blog reported, citing an advisor to the Ukrainian Defense Minister Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov on July 3. The new variant was identified after a Russian Molniya struck a Ukrainian facility and was later found without the usual antenna used for operator control. Ukrainian radio technology specialist Beskrestnov said the drone carried only a camera and an onboard computer, suggesting a different strike profile. Instead...

While news reports have focused on the Middle East for most of 2026, the war in Ukraine has intensified and its potential for continental spillover increased. Also, there is evidence suggesting the globalists are fomenting escalation. Writers for the Council on Foreign Relations say that America should prepare to join Central and Western Europe in an eventual war against Russia. A Russian spokesperson recently appeared on a popular American podcast saying that, at this rate, the conflict is indeed heading toward another world war.State-controlled Russian media reported on Friday that a Ukrainian drone attack killed five Russian civilians and injured...

Russian President Vladimir Putin also noted that the destruction of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continues on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic, Zaporozhye and Kherson RegionsMOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic had been fully liberated. "I note that the tasks of the formations and military units of the united group of forces are carried out in accordance with the plan of the General Staff of the armed forces. The liberation of the Lugansk People's Republic has been fully completed recently," he said during a meeting at one...

A Ukrainian woman has been identified as the main suspect for a parcel bombing in Monaco that seriously wounded a sanctioned Ukrainian multi-millionaire and two others. An Interpol Red Notice has been issued for Anastasiia Berezovska, 39, who speaks German and is wanted for attempted murder, placing an explosive device on a public road with criminal intent, and criminal conspiracy. Police are looking into identifying any possible accomplices as they continue to search for the named suspect. The suspect, pictured on CCTV cameras wearing a dark bucket hat, was then seen fleeing towards the French commune of Beausoleil.

Zaluzhny is considered the favorite in a post-war election.We have been reporting here on TGP that, since May 20, 2024, when his mandate expired, Volodymyr Zelensky has been ruling Ukraine by force of Martial law, becoming illegitimate in the eyes of many. And, for over two years, a figure has been raising its profile to become a challenger if and when presidential elections take place: former Ukrainian top general Valery Zaluzhny, currently ambassador to the UK.

describes the military situation in Ukraine on the 2nd of July 2026 0:00 — 🎬 Intro 0:20 — 🚀 Mega strike on Kyiv begins — largest since 2022 0:48 — 📊 570 air vehicles: 496 drones + 74 missiles 1:15 — 🎯 Kh-101, Kinzhal, Kalibr, Zircon missiles 1:47 — 💥 Energy & military infrastructure destroyed 2:28 — 📦 Nova Poshta terminal in Obolon wiped out 2:55 — ⛽ Oil storage facilities burning 3:21 — 🏭 Drone production facilities hit 3:51 — 🚛 Western Kyiv logistics hub destroyed 5:03 — 🔥 Eastern Kyiv facilities struck 6:04 — 📈 Biggest attack on...

Ukrainian troops will receive cash bonuses for capturing or destroying enemy personnel under the first stage of a sweeping overhaul of the Defense Forces, the Ministry of Defense announced on June 29. The awards stem from the Cabinet of Ministers Resolution, which launched an experimental project introducing additional payments for combat results, according to the ministry. The ministry described the measure as part of the first stage of the Defense Forces’ transformation. It framed the payments as a way to reward front-line service members for confirmed action against enemy personnel. The ministry set two award levels: roughly $2,200 for taking...

More than two million Russian and Ukrainian troops have been killed or wounded in the four years that Russia has been waging war against its neighbor, according to a new study, a bleak milestone as Russia’s assault grinds on. The study, published on Wednesday by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Russia has borne the heavier toll, with 1.4 million troops killed or wounded since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Of that total, 450,000 were killed, a number that is four times greater than U.S. fatalities in all wars combined since World War II. Ukrainian...

Russia is grinding its way into Kostiantynivka, a key stronghold in Ukraine's eastern "fortress belt" long coveted by the Kremlin, even as its gains across the rest of the 1,200-km front line have largely stalled. Fighting has begun to seep into the city ​itself. Small groups of Russian soldiers are attempting to infiltrate its outskirts, senior Ukrainian commanders said last week, suggesting close-quarters assaults could follow. Kostiantynivka is the southernmost of four key ‌settlements forming a defensive line central to Ukraine's effort to hold the heavily industrialised Donetsk region. The push towards it underscores Moscow's enduring manpower advantage, even as...

As Western leaders departed the G7 summit in Évian talking of a “strategic awakening in support of Ukraine,” the night sky over Moscow was illuminated by the fires of a burning oil refinery just nine miles from the Kremlin. This unprecedented Ukrainian drone strike on Russian territory was met in Western capitals with quiet endorsement rather than anxiety. During the tensest moments of the Cold War, Western statecraft was anchored by a healthy fear of the unknown. Today, that prudence has been replaced by confidence that conflict can be precisely managed. When Franklin D. Roosevelt famously declared that "the only...

Soot-choked “black rain" has fallen across multiple districts of Moscow after Ukraine launched its largest-ever drone assault against the Russian capital, scoring a direct hit on a vital energy facility. Close to 200 long-range strike drones targeted the metropolis early on Thursday, overwhelming local air defences and setting the strategic Moscow Oil Refinery in Kapotnya ablaze. As thick columns of dark smoke billowed thousands of feet into the air, residents in the southeastern suburbs and surrounding towns, including Balashikha and Lyubertsy, reported a fine, oily drizzle that coated vehicles, streets, and clothing in a dark, toxic residue. The multi-directional aerial...

Riding a wave of political momentum in 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky, a showman turned wartime leader, could have hardly imagined the path his presidency would take. Some argue that Zelensky's 2019 election was less of an endorsement of his political platform, a populist one, rather a rejection of the old entrenched elite seen as ineffective and corrupt. Years later, Zelensky still faces the domestic challenges that confronted his predecessors — issues he once promised to resolve. On the international stage, however, he has amassed significant support for Ukraine, actively working to maintain global backing as his country defends itself against a...

MOSCOW, May 14 (Reuters) - Russia is establishing a "full-fledged partnership" with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and is encouraging ‌other countries in the region to expand cooperation ‌with Kabul, a senior Russian security official was quoted on Thursday ​as saying. Russia last year became the first country to formally recognise the Islamist Taliban government that seized power in August 2021 as U.S.-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal ‌from Afghanistan after ⁠20 years of war. Interfax news agency quoted Russian official Sergei Shoigu as saying cooperation ⁠with Kabul was important for the security and development of the region. Shoigu, who is secretary...

https://x.com/TheLastRefuge2/status/2052178110464848161 TheLastRefuge@TheLastRefuge2·16hWatch out for what this crew has planned this weekend.They need: (1) domestic political distractions, and (2) to keep the U.S/NATO enmeshed against Russia.I suspect the "coalition of the willing" is planning something timed w/ Russia's Victory Day remembrance.Zelenskyy and his EU team are willing to provoke, then take, a massive counterstrike from Vladimir Putin against Kiev if that’s what it takes to keep the U.S. military engaged and aligned.The Ukraine meat grinder must remain satiated in order for the EU power structures to remain in place.This is a dangerous moment. May 6, 2026

As we mark the 81st anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe this Friday, 8 May, it’s clear that Germany will again be the leading European military power. Already next year its defense spending will be as much as that of France and Britain combined — and it is projected to be significantly larger by 2030. The German government’s declared goal is to have the strongest conventional army in Europe. True, France and Britain have nuclear weapons, but that means less money to spend on the rest of defense. So, the question is not “will this...

[...] So the two no-longer-quite-so-superpowers of the Cold War are both fighting proxy wars: Since Lindsey Graham backdoored his way into the "Maidan Revolution" in 2012, America has been using Ukraine to get at the Russians. And yet America is now totally stunned that Russia is happy to use Iran to get at the Americans: witness Putin giving the Iranian foreign minister, on this week's visit to Moscow, the King Charles treatment. Meanwhile, China sits off to one side, staying focused on its overriding goal of ensuring the end of what it regards as an aberrent half-millennium of Euro-American domination....