Free Republic

Russian forces have surrounded the embattled Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk and control 70% of it, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, but Kyiv's top general said Ukraine was pushing back hard and that fighting was raging in the city centre. Moscow has been trying to take full control of Pokrovsk, which Russians call by its Soviet-era name of Krasnoarmeysk, since mid-2024 as part of its push to take the whole of the wider Donbas industrial region. Instead of mounting a full frontal assault on the city, which used to be home to over 60,000 people and be an important logistics...

The Ukrainian public would not accept Kyiv simply handing over the country’s Donbas region to Russia in a peace deal, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday — advising US envoys against continually pushing a version of peace the war’s victims would see as an “unsuccessful story.” “Emotionally, people will never forgive this. Never. They will not forgive … me, they will not forgive [the US],” Zelensky told Axios, speaking as US, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Geneva. “This is part of our country, all these citizens, the flag, the land.” The president said it was “not fair” that President Trump...

President de Gaulle of France initiated the secret operation “Vide-Gousset” and repatriated 3,313 tonnes of gold reserves from the vaults of the Federal Reserve in New York and the Bank of England in London from 1963 until 1966. De Gaulle feared America’s deficit in its balance of payments would rupture Bretton Woods and lead to a devaluation of the dollar against gold. All France’s dollars were converted into gold, and to avoid treachery, the metal was repatriated over the course of three years. It took 44 boat trips and 129 flights to bring home more than three thousand tonnes of...

WASHINGTON — The White House sent out a message aimed at mollifying Turkey’s president on Tuesday, suggesting that the United States was easing off its support for the Syrian Kurds. That message was quickly contradicted by the Pentagon, which said it would continue to stand by the Kurds, even as Turkey invaded their stronghold in northwestern Syria. The conflicting statements appeared to reflect an effort by the administration to balance competing pressures. Turkey, which has been furious over American support for the Kurds, is a NATO ally, while the Kurds have been critical American partners in the war against the...

After a multi-day artillery barrage, the Turkish Army has begun its push into Afrin, a district of Syria which has been governed by Syrian Kurds ever since they defeated al Qaeda and Islamic State terrorists. Turkish officials say they plan to set up a buffer zone extending almost 20 miles into Syria from the Turkish border. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a blistering speech threatening Turkey’s Kurds if they speak up on behalf of their Syrian counterparts and promising victory within “a very short period of time.” That may be a fatal miscalculation, one which could cripple Turkey. Erdogan’s...

Sipan Hemo stated that their “rightful and legitimate” resistance will continue in the face of the attempted invasion of Afrin, where the Turkish state commits civilian massacres and said: “Victory will certainly be ours.” YPG Commander General Sipan Hemo stated that the Turkish media’s job is “to create the foundations for the invasion of Afrin” and that they insisted on portraying the massacred civilians as fighters. Hemo said, “But the truth is, Erdogan is targeting villages and towns and massacring civilians.” The invading Turkish army launched an attack on Afrin on January 19 with 72 fighter jets. The invasion attack...