Free Republic

Are Russia and Ukraine Closer to a Ceasefire Deal?

... The CIA director said Putin premised his war on four false assumptions: he thought Ukraine was weak, he believed Europe was distracted and wouldn't mount a strong response, he thought Russia's economy was prepared to withstand sanctions, and that Russia's military had been modernized and would fight effectively. "He's been proven wrong on every count," said Burns, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2005-8.

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Jose Diaz-Balart Reports,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) reacted to the Biden administration reportedly looking to increase oil imports from Venezuela by stating that there is no need to go to the Maduro regime in Venezuela that President Biden declared a national security threat five days ago for more oil when there are other nations the U.S. can get oil from and domestic production that is already licensed.

The White House unsuccessfully tried to arrange calls between President Biden and the de facto leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the U.S. was working to build international support for countering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and contain a surge in oil prices, said Middle East and U.S. officials. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the U.A.E.’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan both declined U.S. requests to speak to Mr. Biden in recent weeks, the officials said, as Saudi and Emirati officials have become more vocal in recent weeks in their criticisms of American policy...

The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church said his country’s invasion of Ukraine was a divine mission in opposition to gay rights. According to a Monday report in the Moscow Times, Patriarch Kirill backed Russia’s “military operation” in Ukraine and called it a conflict over “which side of God humanity will be on.” He drew attention to Ukraine‘s gay-pride parades and pro-LGBT laws, and called them a “loyalty test” and an example of Ukraine’s attempting to refashion itself in the cultural image of NATO nations. “Pride parades are designed to demonstrate that sin is one variation of human behavior. That’s...

OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author's opinionSeveral intelligence reports from the Pentagon and Ukraine indicate that Vladimir Putin is dying in agony from terminal bowel cancer. The puffiness on his face may indicate he is taking chemotherapy or steroids. According to US sources, his unsmiling expression indicates that he is experiencing continuous pain. He could have become more aggressive or he may have attacked Ukraine because he knows he will soon die and wishes to leave a legacy. Currently working at the Pentagon, an ex-military intelligence officer says his colleagues have studied Putin, 69, and are...

Ukraine's military, giving an overview of combat as the war enters its 13th day, said Russian advances have 'slowed significantly' even as US intelligence says Putin has now committed '100 per cent' of the force he assembled on the border into battle without making significant territorial gains since late last week. Defensive operations continue in the north, east and south of Ukraine, the military said, with all major cities other than Kherson - which fell last week - in Ukrainian hands. Russian troops are 'demoralised and increasingly tend to looting and violations of international humanitarian law,' commanders added. It has...

Putin's invasion grinds to a halt: Kyiv claims to have destroyed dozens of Russian helicopters overnight, retaken a city, and killed 11,000 troops while Russians have captured no significant territory sparking hopes Ukraine could win the war Ukraine claims to have destroyed dozens of Russian helicopters at an airfield near Kherson overnight Military also said it had recaptured Chuhuiv, near Kharkiv, and killed two commanders in the process Meanwhile units in Odessa claimed to have hit and destroyed a Russian patrol ship off the coast Experts say Russian losses becoming 'unsustainable' with no significant territory captured in recent days

With a white, closely trimmed beard and deep crevices around his mouth where dimples might once have been, Colonel Stetsenko cuts an unusual figure on the battlefield. He is 56 and had been retired from the military for a decade when he decided to re-enlist in 2020. By then, Ukrainian forces were already fighting a Kremlin-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine, and Colonel Stetsenko felt he needed to do his part. “I knew that many people who had already served were tired,” he said. “It is difficult to live for so long without their families, and we needed people to serve....

Russia's invasion of Ukraine appears to have ground to a halt with no significant territory captured despite a weekend of heavy fighting, with Kyiv's men claiming to have taken out dozens of helicopters and recaptured a city this morning - sparking hopes that the unlikeliest of victories may be on the cards. Putin's men renewed their bombardments on Mariupol, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv this morning as his forces also tried to surround Kyiv in preparation for an assault, but have not significantly advanced their frontline since the city of Kherson and nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia were captured last week....

On a snowy tarmac at Amari Air Base in northern Estonia on Sunday morning, pallets of rifles, ammunition and other weapons were being loaded onto one of the largest cargo planes in the world, an Antonov AN-124, belonging to the Ukrainian air force. It is an artifact of the Cold War, built and purchased when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. ... In less than a week, the United States and NATO have pushed more than 17,000 antitank weapons, including Javelin missiles, over the borders of Poland and Romania, unloading them from giant military cargo planes so they...

Former President Donald Trump slammed his former comrade Vladimir Putin for the growing death toll in Ukraine - calling it a 'massive crime against humanity' - and blasted NATO for its lack of action during a GOP donor event Saturday. Trump spoke to Republican National Committee donors in Louisiana during the Spring Retreat in New Orleans, where he covered a wide variety of topics, including the escalating crisis in Ukraine. Trump also went after NATO, calling it a 'paper tiger' and said the US cannot just stand by while Ukraine is invaded, according to Washington Post reporter Josh Dawsey, who...

When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the country’s nuclear forces to go on high alert last week, he looked down a long table at his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, who nodded in assent. ... Russian troops’ failure to quickly seize Ukraine, however, has shown Mr. Shoigu’s changes, while real, didn’t create the fearsome fighting force he touted. Poor logistics, flawed strategy and ill-prepared troops mean any victory will be immensely costly, and an occupation hard to sustain. ... “By agreeing to these assumptions and this type of operation, he has essentially thrown the Russian military into a disaster.”

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — In a private video call with American lawmakers over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a “desperate” plea to the United States to help Kyiv get more warplanes to fight Russia’s invasion and retain control of its airspace. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Washington has given a “green light” to the idea and is currently “very, very actively” looking at a proposal under which Ukraine’s neighbor Poland would supply Kyiv with Soviet-era fighters and in turn receive American F-16s to make up for their loss. However, the proposition is fraught with uncertainty

Sub Headline: According to its data, by implementing programs in both nuclear and rocket spheres over more than two decades, Ukraine was consistently nearing all the necessary conditions to create its own nuclear weaponsUkraine could have obtained nuclear weapons within several months, a source in one of Russian agencies told TASS."According to conclusions by Western experts, the Kiev regime was extremely close to creating a nuclear explosive device based on plutonium due to its covert obtainment from spent nuclear fuel stored in the country’s territory. Ukrainian specialists could have made such a device within several months," the source said.

America’s Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has published and promoted an interview with a renowed Neo-Nazi Ukrainian mayor, without disclosing the politician’s allegiances to World War II German leader Adolf Hitler and Ukraine’s own Nazi sympathizer Stepan Bandera. The interview comes just days after PBS published an article downplaying the links between Neo-Nazi politicians and Ukraine’s current political situation. On Thursday, March 4th, PBS hosted Mayor Artem Semenikhin of Konotop in the country’s North East. Semenikhin described the Russian military as “cockroaches” before going on to thank the United States for supplying his people with weapons. “My weapon is American, and...

What are they doing? The Biden White House is going to ask Kamala Harris to back into the game again? Bench this woman, please. For the sake of our intelligence and human civilization, just put her back into the cardboard box from whence she came. She has failed on the border. She failed in boosting COVID vaccination rates. Harris is a walking failure, who bleeds staff and fosters a toxic work environment. She doesn’t do the work and she doesn’t read the briefings her staff prepare for her, so she doesn’t look like an idiot. She botched the talking points...

If you have been monitoring the coverage of the conflict in Ukraine, it is amply clear that a narrative is being pushed. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is being compared to Winston Churchill during World War II; he is leading his people during perilous times to become an inspiring figure. He refused a safe passage offer from the U.S. with the quip: “I need ammunition, not a ride”. He streams videos from the deserted streets of Ukraine and posts photos with his cabinet. Photos of Zelenskyy surface in military gear on the battlefront. To sum it up, Zelensky is being portrayed as...

The American branch of Russian state-funded media network Russia Today (RT) is shutting down and laying off most of its staff, CNN reports. According to a memo, RT America will be “ceasing production” due to “unforeseen business interruption events.” “Unfortunately, we anticipate this layoff will be permanent, meaning that this will result in the permanent separation from employment of most T&R employees at all locations,” the memo said, via CNN. Per CNN, Misha Solodovnikov, the general manager of T&R Productions, the production company behind RT, delivered the news in person to hosts, correspondents, producers and others in the Washington, D.C....

I have come to believe that the US is backing the wrong side in the Ukrainian invasion, and it is not an accident. Trump and Putin were the two most powerful nationalistic leaders in the world. They have zero interest in the Great Rest or the New World Order. They are all about their own countries--as they should be. They were chosen to lead their respective country--not as governors for some world leader we may or may not know about (Deep State). Trump was "defeated" in 2020 at the polls and dismissed from leadership. We all know what happened with...