Free Republic

POKROVSK REGION, Ukraine -- A dire shortage of infantry troops and supply routes coming under Russian drone attacks are conspiring against Ukrainian forces in Pokrovsk, where decisive battles in the nearly three-year war are playing out — and time is running short. Ukrainian troops are losing ground around the crucial supply hub, which lies at the confluence of multiple highways leading to key cities in the eastern Donetsk region as well as an important railway station. Moscow is set on capturing as much territory as possible as the Trump administration is pushing for negotiations to end the war and recently...

Desertion is starving the Ukrainian army of desperately needed manpower and crippling its battle plans at a crucial time in its war with Russia, which could put Kyiv at a clear disadvantage in future ceasefire talks. Facing every imaginable shortage, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops, tired and bereft, have walked away from combat and front-line positions to slide into anonymity, according to soldiers, lawyers and Ukrainian officials. Entire units have abandoned their posts, leaving defensive lines vulnerable and accelerating territorial losses, according to military commanders and soldiers. Some take medical leave and never return, haunted by the traumas of...

The Biden administration is determined in its final months to help ensure that Ukraine can keep fighting off Russia's full-scale invasion next year, sending it as much aid as possible so that it might hold Russian forces at bay and possess a strong hand in any potential peace negotiations, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday. “President Biden has committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and Jan. 20,” when president-elect Donald Trump is due to be sworn in, Blinken said. NATO countries must focus their...

Ukrainian forces are withdrawing from the front-line town of Vuhledar, perched atop a tactically significant hill in eastern Ukraine, after more than two years of grinding battle, military officials said Wednesday. Vuhledar, a town Ukrainian forces fought tooth and nail to keep, is the latest urban settlement to fall to the Russians as the war stretches deep into its third year and the Ukrainian army is gradually being pushed backward in the eastern Donetsk province. The tactical significance of the town, situated at the confluence of two major roads, is two-fold. Dominant heights and proximity to railway lines offer Moscow...

When the Russian army mounted a full-scale invasion two years ago, Ukrainian men zealously rushed to recruitment centers across the country to enlist, ready to die in defense of their nation. Today, with Russia in control of roughly one-quarter of Ukraine and the two armies virtually deadlocked along a 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, that spirit to enlist has faded: Many Ukrainian men are evading the draft by hiding at home or trying to bribe their way out of the battle. Along the frigid and muddy front line, commanders say their army is too small and made up of too many...

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Yousra Abu Sharekh’s days begin in the southern Gaza Strip often after sleepless nights amid blaring ambulance sirens and the clamor of neighbors in the brief pause between relentless Israeli airstrikes. By daybreak, the 33-year-old mother is on the hunt for bread, lining up for hours at bakeries to buy one bag to feed her two children. Without electricity, disconnected from her relatives and terrified by the sounds of warplanes overhead, she rushes in the afternoon to see her sick mother at a crowded U.N. shelter 20 minutes away. Only two weeks ago, Abu...

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg visited Ukraine on Thursday for the first time since Russia invaded more than a year ago, a highly symbolic trip that underscores the alliance’s commitment to helping Kyiv defend itself. The Kremlin quickly warned that Ukraine must not be allowed to join NATO. Russia has given various and shifting justifications for going to war, but it has repeatedly pointed to the expansion of the military alliance toward its borders in recent years, including citing fears that Kyiv would be admitted. Images published in local media showed Stoltenberg apparently paying tribute to fallen Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv’s...