Free Republic

Ukraine launched a "large-scale" drone attack deep into Russian territory that security officials claim destroyed 40 military bombers as it gears up for another round of talks in Istanbul to explore prospects of a ceasefire. A Ukrainian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that the attack took over a year and a half to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones hit airfields including the Belaya air base in Russia's Irkutsk region, more...

As Russia's invasion of Ukraine hit the five-month mark on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged to continue inflicting "the greatest possible losses on the enemy." "Even the occupiers admit we will win," Zelenskyy said in a video address on Sunday. "We hear it in their conversations — all the time, in what they tell their loved ones when they contact them." Ukraine will celebrate the Day of Ukrainian Statehood on Thursday, a new national holiday that was decreed by Zelenskyy last August.

Lithuania has extended the blockade on goods heading for Kaliningrad sanctioned by the EU to also include road transports and not just rail. The U.S. has announced that it is backing Lithuania in its spat with Russia over the blockade.

Pictures have emerged from the streets of Ukraine showing the smouldering wrecks of Russian tanks destroyed amid brutal urban fighting as Putin's invasion of his neighbour continues. Huge convoys of Russian armour have rumbled into several Ukrainian cities, only to be met with fierce resistance as well-armed troops used a mixture of their own and NATO-supplied anti-tank weapons to wreak havoc on the invaders. Some of the most shocking images of the devastation inflicted on Russian armour came from the town of Bucha on the outskirts of Kyiv, where an entire column of tanks and armoured vehicles were obliterated. Taken...