Free Republic

Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R) conceded to Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro (D) on Sunday in the state’s gubernatorial race, five days after news outlets called the race against him. “Difficult to accept as the results are, there is no right course but to concede, which I do, and I look to the challenges ahead. Josh Shapiro will be our next Governor, and I ask everyone to give him the opportunity to lead and pray that he leads well,” Mastriano said in a statement.

By yesterday, it looked like the battle for Mariupol was over in all but name when Zelensky sent word to his own troops to get out if they were able. The steel mill where the fighters, along with thousands of civilians had been holed up has been mostly shelled into rubble. Finally, the wounded were removed on stretchers and a significant number of the remaining troops turned themselves over to the Russian forces. Reportedly, many of them were loaded onto buses to a prison camp in Russian-held territory. But there are still thousands of Russian prisoners of war being held...

Russia has been accused of double crossing Ukraine as officials moved to pull back on an agreement to free captured troops from the Azovstal steelworks. Moscow had agreed to exchange hundreds of members of the Azov Regiment – the Ukrainian unit holed up in the Soviet-era steel mill – in a prisoner swap earlier this week. However Russia’s parliament has now announced it will vote on a resolution to ‘prevent the exchange of Nazi war criminals’ today – with some members calling for the Azov troops to be executed. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar dismissed the threats as ‘internal...

Former representative of Ukraine in the Trilateral Contact Group (TCG; Ukraine - Russia - OSCE) on the implementation of the peace plan in the East of Ukraine, journalist Serhii Harmash has criticized the Ukrainian authorities and the media. According to him, they are trying to file as a victory the forced surrender of Azov. Harmash wrote about this on his Facebook page. "On Mariupol. I unequivocally positively assess the fact of the evacuation of our wounded from Azovstal. I understand and support if other defenders of Mariupol leave Azovstal after the wounded. They did everything they could. They have already...

Ukraine’s military worked Tuesday to evacuate its remaining fighters from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where three months of Russian bombing has left the besieged port city in ruins. Ukrainian officials said more than 260 fighters were evacuated Monday. Fifty-three seriously injured fighters were taken to a hospital in Novoazovsk, east of Mariupol, Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said. Novoazovsk is under the control of Russian troops and Russian-backed separatists. Another 211 fighters were taken to the town of Olenivka, an area also controlled by Russian-backed separatists, Malyar said, adding that the evacuees would be subject to a...

On Monday, May 16, some of the defenders of the azovstal iron and steel works were taken to the temporarily occupied territory of Donetsk region. Subsequently, they will be exchanged for prisoners of the Russian invaders. This information was confirmed by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky during a video message to the Ukrainian people (to view it, scroll to the end of the page). Among the soldiers there are seriously wounded, they are receiving medical assistance. "Thanks to the actions of the Ukrainian military – the Armed Forces of Ukraine, intelligence, as well as the negotiation group, the International Committee...

"The first reaction that overwhelmed many people in America and the world when they saw Trump boarding the AF1 was one of frustration and delusion. Several people thought (and many still think it), that the US President has surrendered in some way. In fact, people have thought instead that Donald Trump has only been a “man of the system” since the beginning and that the globalist élite chose him as a containment wall to avoid any kind of real change. In this moment, there are three main theories regarding Trump’s role in his administration. The first theory is that Trump...

Thursday on MSNBC’s “Deadline,” campaign strategist for former President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) Steve Schmidt said, “40 percent of the country has surrendered their intellectual sovereignty to Donald Trump.” Schmidt said, “He’s pursuing the only strategy he can pursue, which is try to incite his base. As he incites that base, that base gets smaller, and the majority grows in opposition to Trump, but the smaller base is a harder more intense one. If you go back to inauguration day, Trump has less support today than he did then. His base is smaller. The Republican party...